q 

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fornia 
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White. 

The  warfare  of  science 
XVIII.  From  magic  to  chem- 
istry and  physics. 


UNIVERSITYOF CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY,  IRVINE 
NKW    CHAFTEKS    IN 


THE  WARFARE  OF  SCIENCE 


BY 

ANDKKW    D1CKSOX    WHITE,   LI..  I).,   L.  II.  U 

KX-PKKKI1IENT    nK    IOKNKI.I.    CMVKKSITY 


XVIII.  FROM  MAGIC  TO  CHEMISTRY  AND 
PHYSICS 


HKl'HL\Th:i>   rilOM    T11K  I'Ul'l'l.Ai;   .sT/A'.VrA'   M <>\ Till.) 
FOll  DKCKMHKH,    JW.;   A.\l>  ./.l.Vr.l  //  }'     ;s:-.; 


NEW    VOHK 

I).    A  PPL  ETON     A  N  I)     CUM  PA  N  V 
181)8 


NEW  CHAPTERS  IN 


THE  WARFARE  OF  SCIENCE 


BY 

ANDREW  DICKSON  WHITE,  LL.  D.,  L.H.D. 

KX-I'l'.ESIUENT   OP   COBNBLL   CN1VEE8ITT 


XVIII.  F,ROM  MAGIC  TO  CHEMISTRY  AND 
PHYSICS 


REPRINTED  FROM  TEE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY 
FOR  DECEMBER,  1892,  AND  JANUARY   1893 


NEW  YORK 
D.   APPLETON    AND    COMPANY 

1893 


Q 

/Z5" 


COPYBIOHT,  1892, 
Br  D.  APPLETON  AND  COMPANY. 


NEW  CHAPTERS  IN 

THE  WARFARE  OF  SCIENCE. 

XVIII. 

FBOM  MAGIC   TO   CHEMISTRY 
AOT)   PHYSICS. 


PART   I. 

IN  all  the  earliest  developments  of  human  thought  we  find  a 
tendency  to  ascribe  mysterious  powers  over  Nature  to  men 
and  women  especially  gifted  or  skilled.  Survivals  of  this  view 
are  found  to  this  day  among  savages  and  barbarians  left  behind 
in  the  evolution  of  civilization,  and  especially  is  this  the  case 
among  the  tribes  of  Australia,  Africa,  and  the  Pacific  coast  of 
America ;  even  in  the  most  enlightened  nations  still  appear,  here 
and  there,  popular  beliefs,  observances,  or  sayings,  drawn  from 
this  earlier  phase  of  thought. 

Between  the  prehistoric  savage  developing  this  theory,  and 
therefore  endeavoring  to  deal  with  the  powers  of  Nature  by 
magic,  and  the  modern  man  who  has  outgrown  it,  appears  a  long 
line  of  nations  struggling  upward  through  it.  As  the  hiero- 
glyphs, cuneiform  inscriptions,  and  various  other  records  of  an- 
tiquity are  read,  the  development  of  this  belief  can  be  studied  in 
Egypt,  India,  Babylonia,  Assyria,  Persia,  and  Phoenicia.  From 
these  countries  it  came  into  the  early  thought  of  Greece  and 
Rome,  but  especially  into  the  Jewish  and  Christian  sacred  books  ; 
both  in  the  Old  Testament  and  in  the  New  we  find  magic,  sorcery, 
and  soothsaying  constantly  referred  to  as  realities.* 

*  For  magic  in  prehistoric  times  and  survivals  of  it  since,  with  abundant  citation  of 
authorities,  see  Tylor,  Primitive  Culture,  chap,  iv ;  also  the  Early  History  of  Mankind,  by 
the  same  author,  third  edition,  pp.  115  et  seq.,  also  p.  380  ;  also  Andrew  Lang,  Myth,  Ritual, 
and  Religion,  vol.  i,  chap.  iv.  For  magic  in  Egypt,  see  Lenormant,  Chaldean  Magic,  chaps, 
vi-viii ;  also  Maspero,  Histoire  Ancienne  des  Peuples  de  1'Orient ;  and  especially  the  citations 
from  Chabas,  Le  Papyrus  Magique  Harris,  in  chap,  vii ;  also  Maurv,  La  Magie  et  1'Astrologie  dans 
1' Antiquite  et  au  Moyen  Age.  For  magic  in  Chaldea,  see  Lenormant  as  above.  For  examples  of 


4    NEW  CHAPTERS  IN  THE   WARFARE   OF  SCIENCE. 

The  first  distinct  impulse  which  lifted  mankind  toward  a 
higher  view  of  research  into  natural  laws  was  given  by  the  philos- 
ophers of  Greece.  It  is  true  that  philosophical  opposition  to 
physical  research  was  at  times  strong,  and  that  even  a  great 
thinker  like  Socrates  considered  certain  physical  investigations 
as  an  impious  intrusion  into  the  work  of  the  gods  ;  it  is  also  true 
that  Plato  and  Aristotle,  while  bringing  their  thoughts  to  bear 
upon  the  world  with  great  beauty  and  force,  did  much  to  draw 
mankind  away  from  those  methods  which  in  modern  times  have 
produced  the  best  results. 

Plato  developed  a  world  in  which  the  physical  sciences  had 
little  if  any  real  reason  for  existing ;  Aristotle,  a  world  in  which 
the  same  sciences  were  developed  not  so  much  by  observation  of 
what  is,  as  of  speculation  on  what  ought  to  be.  From  the  former 
of  these  two  great  men  came  into  Christian  theology  many  germs 
of  mediaeval  magic,  and  from  the  latter  sundry  modes  of  reason- 
ing which  aided  in  the  evolution  of  these;  yet  the  impulse  to 
human  thought  given  by  these  great  masters  was  of  inestimable 
value  to  our  race,  and  one  legacy  from  them  was  especially 
precious ; — the  idea  that  a  science  of  Nature  is  possible,  and  that 
the  highest  occupation  of  man  is  the  discovery  of  its  laws.  Still 
another  gift  from  them  was  greatest  of  all,  for  they  gave  scien- 
tific freedom  :  they  laid  no  interdict  upon  new  paths  ;  they  inter- 
posed no  barriers  to  the  extension  of  knowledge ;  they  threatened 
no  doom  in  this  life  or  in  the  next  against  investigators  on  new 
lines ;  they  left  the  world  free  to  seek  any  new  methods  and  to 
follow  any  new  paths  which  thinking  men  could  find. 

This  legacy  of  belief  in  science,  of  respect  for  scientific  pur- 
suits, and  of  freedom  in  scientific  research,  was  especially  re- 
ceived by  the  school  of  Alexandria,  and  above  all  by  Archimedes, 
who  began,  just  before  the  Christian  era,  to  open  new  paths 
through  the  great  field  of  the  inductive  sciences  by  observation, 
comparison,  and  experiment.* 

magical  powers  in  India,  see  Max  Miiller's  Sacred  Books  of  the  East,  vol.  xvii,  pp.  121  et  seq. 
For  a  legendary  view  of  magic  in  Media,  see  the  Zend  Avesta,  Part  I,  p.  14,  translated  by 
Darmsteter ;  and  for  a  more  highly  developed  view,  see  the  Zend  Avesta,  Part  III,  p.  239, 
translated  by  Mill.  For  magic  in  Greece  and  Rome,  and  especially  in  the  Xeoplatonic  school 
as  well  as  in  the  middle  ages,  see  especially  Maun-,  La  Magie  et  1'Astrologie,  chaps,  iii-v. 
For  various  sorts  of  magic  recognized  and  condemned  in  our  sacred  books,  see  Deuteronomy, 
xviii,  10,  11 ;  and  for  the  burning  of  magical  books  at  Ephesus  under  the  influence  of  St. 
Paul,  see  Acts,  xix,  14.  See  also  Ewald,  History  of  Israel,  Martineau's  translation,  fourth 
edition,  ii,  55-63  ;  iii,  45-51.  For  a  very  elaborate  summing  up  of  the  passages  in  our 
sacred  books,  recognizing  magic  as  a  fact,  see  De  Uaen,  "De  Magia,"  Lips.,  1775,  chaps,  i, 
ii,  and  iii,  of  first  part.  For  general  subject  of  magic,  see  Ennemoser,  History  of  Magic, 
translated  by  Howitt,  which,  however,  constantly  mixes  sorcery  with  magic  proper. 

*  As  to  the  beginnings  of  physical  science  in  Greece,  and  of  the  theological  opposition  to 
physical  science,  also  Socrates's  view  regarding  certain  branches  as  interdicted  to  human 


XEW  CHAPTERS  IN  THE   WARFARE   OF  SCIENCE.     5 

The  establishment  of  Christianity,  though  it  began  a  new 
evolution  of  religion,  arrested  the  normal  development  of  the 
physical  sciences  for  over  fifteen  hundred  years.  The  cause  of 
this  arrest  was  twofold :  First,  there  was  created  an  atmosphere 
in  which  the  germs  of  physical  science  could  hardly  grow ; — an  at- 
mosphere in  which  all  seeking  for  truth  in  Nature  as  truth  was  re- 
garded as  futile.  The  general  belief  derived  from  the  New  Testa- 
ment Scriptures  was,  that  the  end  of  the  world  was  at  hand ;  that 
the  last  judgment  was  approaching;  that  all  existing  physical 
Nature  was  soon  to  be  destroyed  :  hence,  the  greatest  thinkers  in 
the  Church  generally  poured  contempt  upon  all  investigators  into 
a  science  of  Nature,  and  insisted  that  everything  except  the  saving 
of  souls  was  folly. 

This  belief  appears  frequently  through  the  entire  period  of  the 
middle  ages,  but  during  the  first  thousand  years  it  is  clearly 
dominant.  From  Lactantius  and  Eusebius,  in  the  third  century, 
pouring  contempt,  as  we  have  seen,  over  studies  in  astronomy,  to 
Peter  Damiaii,  the  noted  chancellor  of  Pope  Gregory  VII,  in  the 
eleventh  century,  declaring  all  worldly  sciences  to  be  "  absurdities  " 
and  "  fooleries/'  it  becomes  the  atmosphere  of  thought.* 

Then,  too,  there  was  established  a  standard  to  which  all  science 
which  did  struggle  up  through  this  atmosphere  must  be  made  to 
conform — a  standard  which  favored  magic  rather  than  science, 
for  it  was  a  standard  of  rigid  dogmatism  obtained  from  literal 
readings  in  the  Jewish  and  Christian  Scriptures.  The  most  care- 
ful inductions  from  ascertained  facts  were  regarded  as  wretchedly 
fallible  when  compared  with  any  view  of  Nature  whatever  given 
or  even  hinted  at  in  any  poem,  chronicle,  code,  apologue,  myth, 
legend,  allegory,  letter,  or  discourse  of  any  sort  which  had  hap- 
pened to  be  preserved  in  the  literature  which  had  come  to  be  held 
as  sacred. 

For  twelve  centuries,  then,  the  physical  sciences  were  thus  dis- 
couraged or  perverted  by  the  dominant  orthodoxy.  Whoever 
studied  Nature  studied  it  either  openly  to  find  illustrations  of  the 
sacred  text,  useful  in  the  "  saving  of  souls,"  or  secretly  to  gain 
the  aid  of  occult  powers,  useful  in  securing  personal  advantage. 
Great  men  like  Bede,  Isidore  of  Seville,  Rabanus  Maurus,  accepted 


study,  see  Grote's  Greece,  vol.  i,  pp.  495  and  504,  505 ;  also  Jowett's  introduction  to  his 
translation  of  the  Thnaeus,  and  Whewell's  History  of  the  Inductive  Sciences.  For  examples 
showing  the  incompatibility  of  Plato's  methods  in  physical  science  with  that  pursued  in  mod- 
ern times,  see  Zeller,  Plato  and  the  Older  Academy,  English  translation  by  Alleyne  and  Good- 
win, pp.  375  et  seq.  The  supposed  opposition  to  freedom  of  opinion  in  the  "  Laws  "  of  Plato, 
toward  the  end  of  his  life,  ran  hardly  make  against  the  whole  spirit  of  Greek  thought. 

*  For  the  view  of  Peter  Damian  and  others  through  the  middle  ages  as  to  the  futility  of 
scientific  investigation,  see  citations  in  Eicken,  Geschichte  und  System  der  niitteliilterlichen 
Weltanschauung,  chap.  vi. 


6    NEW  CHAPTERS  IN  THE  WARFARE   OF  SCIENCE. 

the  scriptural  standard  of  science,  and  used  it  as  a  means  of 
Christian  edification.  The  views  of  Bede  and  Isidor  on  kindred 
subjects  have  been  shown  in  former  chapters ;  and  typical  of  the 
view  taken  by  Rabanus  is  the  fact  that  in  his  great  work  on  the 
Universe  there  are  only  two  chapters  which  seem  directly  or  in- 
directly to  recognize  even  the  beginnings  of  a  real  philosophy  of 
Nature.  A  multitude  of  less-known  men  found  warrant  in  Script- 
ure for  magic  applied  to  less  worthy  purposes.* 

But  after  the  thousand  years  to  which  the  Church,  upon  sup- 
posed scriptural  warrant,  had  lengthened  out  the  term  of  the 
earth's  existence  had  passed,  "  the  end  of  all  things"  seemed  fur- 
ther off  than  ever ;  and  in  the  thirteenth  century,  owing  to  causes 
which  need  not  be  dwelt  upon  here,  came  a  great  revival  of 
thought,  so  that  the  forces  of  theology  and  of  science  seemed  ar- 
rayed for  a  contest.  On  one  side  came  a  revival  of  religious  fer- 
vor, and  to  this  day  the  works  of  the  cathedral-builders  mark  its 
depth  and  strength ;  on  the  other  side  came  a  new  spirit  of  in- 
quiry incarnate  in  a  line  of  powerful  thinkers. 

First  among  these  was  Albert  of  Bollstadt,  better  known  as 
Albert  the  Great,  the  most  renowned  scholar  of  his  time.  Fet- 
tered though  he  was  by  the  methods  sanctioned  in  the  Church, 
dark  as  was  all  about  him,  he  had  conceived  ideas  of  better 
methods  and  aims ;  his  eye  pierced  the  mists  of  scholasticism ;  he 
saw  the  light,  and  sought  to  draw  the  world  toward  it.  He  stands 
among  the  great  pioneers  of  physical  and  natural  science;  he 
aided  in  giving  foundations  to  botany  and  chemistry;  he  rose 
above  his  time  and  struck  a  heavy  blow  at  those  who  opposed  the 
possibility  of  human  life  on  opposite  sides  of  the  earth ;  he  noted 
the  influence  of  mountains,  seas,  and  forests  upon  races  and  prod- 
ucts, so  that  Humboldt  justly  finds  in  his  works  the  germs  of 
physical  geography  as  a  comprehensive  science. 

But  the  old  system  of  deducing  scientific  truth  from  script- 
ural texts  was  renewed  in  the  development  of  scholastic  theology, 
and  ecclesiastical  power  acting  through  thousands  of  subtle  chan- 
nels was  made  to  aid  this  development.  The  old  idea  of  the  vast 
superiority  of  theology  was  revived.  Though  Albert's  main 
effort  was  to  Christianize  science,  he  was  dealt  with  by  the 
authorities  of  the  Dominican  order,  subjected  to  suspicion  and 

*  As  typical  examples,  see  the  utterances  of  Eusebius  and  Lactantius  regarding  astrono- 
mers given  in  the  chapter  on  Astronomy.  For  a  summary  of  Rabanus  Maurus's  doctrine  of 
physics,  see  Heller,  Gescbichte  der  Physik,  vol.  i,  pp.  172  et  seq.  For  Bede  and  Isidore,  see 
the  earlier  chapters  of  this  work.  For  an  excellent  statement  regarding  the  application  of 
scriptural  standards  to  scientific  research  in  the  middle  ages,  see  Kretschmer,  Die  physische 
Erdkunde  im  Christlichen  Mittelalter,  pp.  5  et  seq.  For  the  distinctions  in  magic  recognized 
in  the  mediaeval  Church,  see  the  long  catalogue  of  various  sorts  given  in  the  Abbe  Migne's 
Encyclopedic  Th£ologique,  third  series,  article  "  Magie." 


NEW  CHAPTERS  IN   THE   WARFARE   OF  SCIENCE.     7 

indignity,  and  only  escaped  persecution  for  sorcery  by  yielding 
to  the  ecclesiastical  spirit  of  the  time,  and  working  finally  in 
theological  channels  by  scholastic  methods. 

It  was  a  vast  loss  to  the  earth ;  and  certainly,  of  all  organiza- 
tions that  have  reason  to  lament  the  pressure  of  ecclesiasticism 
which  turned  Albert  the  Great  from  natural  philosophy  to  theol- 
ogy, foremost  of  all  in  regret  should  be  the  Christian  Church,  and 
especially  the  Roman  branch  of  it.  Had  there  been  evolved  in 
the  Church  during  the  thirteenth  century  a  faith  strong  enough 
to  accept  the  truths  in  natural  science  which  Albert  and  his  com- 
peers could  have  given,  and  to  have  encouraged  their  growth, 
this  faith  and  this  encouragement  would  to  this  day  have  formed 
the  greatest  argument  for  proving  the  Church  directly  under 
divine  guidance ;  they  would  have  been  among  the  brightest 
jewels  in  her  crown.  The  loss  to  the  Church  by  this  want  of 
faith  and  courage  has  proved  in  the  long  run  even  greater  than 
the  loss  to  science.* 

The  next  great  man  of  that  age  whom  the  theological  and  eccle- 
siastical forces  of  the  time  turned  from  the  right  path  was  Vin- 
cent of  Beauvais.  During  the  first  half  of  the  twelfth  century  he 
devoted  himself  to  the  study  of  Nature  in  several  of  her  most  in- 
teresting fields.  To  astronomy,  botany,  and  zoology  he  gave 
special  attention,  but  in  a  larger  way  he  made  a  general  study  of 
the  universe,  and  in  a  series  of  treatises  undertook  to  reveal  the 
whole  field  of  science.  But  his  work  simply  became  a  vast  com- 
mentary on  the  account  of  creation  given  in  the  book  of  Genesis. 
Beginning  with  the  work  of  the  Trinity  at  the  creation,  he  goes 
on  to  detail  the  work  of  angels  in  all  their  fields,  and  makes 
excursions  into  every  part  of  creation,  visible  and  invisible,  but 
always  with  the  most  complete  subordination  of  his  thought  to 
the  literal  statements  of  Scripture. 

Could  he  have  taken  the  path  of  experimental  research,  the 
world  would  have  been  enriched  with  most  precious  discoveries ; 

*  For  a  very  careful  discussion  of  Albert's  strength  in  investigation  and  weakness  in 
yielding  to  scholastic  authority,  see  Kopp,  Ansichten  iiber  die  Aufgabe  der  Ghemie  von 
Geber  bis  Stahl,  Braunschweig,  1875,  pp.  64  et  seq.  For  a  very  extended  and  enthusiastic 
biographical  sketch,  see  Pouchet.  For  comparison  of  his  work  with  that  of  Thomas  Aquinas, 
see  Milman,  History  of  Latin  Christianity,  vol.  vi,  p.  461.  "  H  etait  aussi  tres-habile  dans 
les  arts  mecaniques,  ce  que  le  fit  soup9onner  d'etre  sorcier"  (Sprengel,  Histoire  de  la 
Medecine,  vol.  ii,  p.  389).  For  Albert's  biography  treated  strictly  in  accordance  with  ecclesi- 
astical methods,  see  Albert  the  Great,  by  Joachim  Sighart,  translated  by  the  Rev.  T.  A. 
Dickson,  of  the  Order  of  Preachers,  published  under  the  sanction  of  the  Dominican  censor 
and  of  the  Cardinal  Archbishop  of  Westminster,  London,  1876.  How  an  Englishman  like 
Cardinal  Manning  could  tolerate  among  Englishmen  such  an  unctuous  glossing  over  of  his- 
torical truth  is  one  of  the  wonders  of  contemporary  history.  For  choice  specimens  see 
chapters  ii  and  iv.  For  one  of  the  best  and  most  recent  summaries,  see  Heller,  Geschichte 
der  Physik,  Stuttgart,  1882,  vol.  i,  pp.  179  et  seq. 


8     NEW  CHAPTERS  IN  THE   WARFARE  OF  SCIENCE. 

but  the  force  which  had  given  wrong  direction  to  Albert  of  Boll- 
stadt,  backed  as  it  was  by  the  whole  ecclesiastical  power  of  his 
time,  was  too  strong,  and  in  all  the  life  labor  of  Vincent  nothing 
appears  of  any  permanent  value.  He  reared  a  structure  which 
the  adaptation  of  facts  to  literal  interpretations  of  Scripture,  and 
the  application  of  theological  subtleties  to  Nature  combine  to  make 
one  of  the  most  striking  monuments  of  human  error.* 

But  the  theological  spirit  of  the  thirteenth  century  gained  its 
greatest  victory  in  the  work  of  St.  Thomas  Aquinas.  In  him  was 
the  theological  spirit  of  his  age  incarnate.  Although  he  yielded 
somewhat  at  one  period  to  love  of  natural  science,  it  was  he  who 
finally  made  that  great  treaty  or  compromise  which  for  ages  sub- 
jected science  entirely  to  theology.  He  it  was  who  reared  the  most 
enduring  barrier  against  those  who  in  that  age  and  in  succeeding 
ages  labored  to  open  for  science  the  path  by  its  own  legitimate 
methods  toward  its  own  noble  ends. 

He  had  been  the  pupil  of  Albert  the  Great,  and  had  gained 
much  from  him.  Through  the  earlier  systems  of  philosophy,  as 
they  were  then  known,  and  through  the  earlier  theologic  thought, 
he  had  gone  with  great  labor  and  vigor ;  and  all  his  mighty  pow- 
ers, thus  disciplined  and  cultured,  he  brought  to  bear  in  making  a 
treaty  or  truce  which  was  to  give  theology  permanent  supremacy 
over  science. 

The  experimental  method  had  already  been  practically  initi- 
ated ;  Albert  of  Bollstadt  and  Roger  Bacon  had  begun  their  work 
in  accordance  with  its  methods;  but  St.  Thomas  gave  all  his 
thoughts  to  bringing  science  again  under  the  sway  of  theological 
methods  and  ecclesiastical  control.  In  his  commentary  on  Aris- 
totle's treatise  upon  Heaven  and  Earth,  he  gave  to  the  world  a 
striking  example  of  what  his  method  could  produce ;  illustrating 
all  the  evils  which  arise  in  combining  theological  reasoning  and 
literal  interpretation  of  Scripture  with  scientific  facts,  and  this 
work  remains  to  this  day  a  monument  of  scientific  genius  per- 
verted by  theology,  f 

The  ecclesiastical  power  of  the  time  hailed  him  as  a  deliverer ; 
it  was  claimed  that  miracles  were  vouchsafed,  proving  that  the 
blessing  of  Heaven  rested  upon  his  labors ;  and  among  the  legends 
embodying  this  claim  is  that  given  by  the  Bollandists  and  immor- 
talized by  a  renowned  painter.  The  great  philosopher  and  saint  is 
represented  in  the  habit  of  his  order,  with  book  and  pen  in  hand, 
kneeling  before  the  image  of  Christ  crucified,  and  as  he  kneels  the 


*  For  Vincent  de  Beauvais,  see  Etudes  sur  Vincent  de  Beauvais,  par  l'Abb6  Bourgeat, 
chaps,  xii,  xiii,  and  xiv ;  also  Pouchet,  Histoire  des  Sciences  Xaturelles  au  Moyen  Age,  Paris, 
1863,  pp.  470  et  seq.;  also  other  histories  cited  hereafter. 

f  For  citations  showing  this  sulwrdinatiou  of  science  to  theology,  see  Eicken,  chap.  vi. 


NEW  CHAPTERS  IN  THE   WARFARE   OF  SCIENCE.     9 

image  thus  addresses  him :  "  Thomas,  thou  hast  written  well  con- 
cerning me;  what  price  wilt  thou  receive  for  thy  labor?"  The 
myth-making  faculty  of  the  people  at  large  was  also  brought  into 
play.  According  to  a  wide-spread  and  circumstantial  legend,  Al- 
bert, by  magical  means,  created  an  android — an  artificial  man.  liv- 
ing, speaking,  and  answering  all  questions  with  such  subtlety  that 
St.  Thomas,  unable  to  answer  its  reasoning,  broke  it  to  pieces  with 
his  staff. 

To  this  day  historians  of  the  Roman  Church  like  Rohrbacher, 
and  historians  of  science  like  Pouchet,  find  it  convenient  to  pro- 
pitiate the  Church  by  dilating  upon  the  glories  of  St.  Thomas 
Aquinas  in  thus  making  an  alliance  between  religious  and  scien- 
tific thought,  and  laying  the  foundations  for  a  "  sanctified  science  " ; 
but  the  unprejudiced  historian  can  not  indulge  in  this  enthusiastic 
view :  the  results  both  for  the  Church  and  for  science  have  been 
most  unfortunate.  It  was  a  wretched  delay  in  the  evolution  of 
fruitful  thought ;  for  the  first  result  of  this  great  man's  great 
com  promise  was  to  close  for  ages  that  path'  in  science  which  above 
all  others  leads  to  discoveries  of  value — the  experimental  method 
— and  to  reopen  that  old  path  of  mixed  theology  and  science 
which,  as  Hallam  declares,  "after  three  or  four  hundred  years 
had  not  untied  a  single  knot  or  added  one  unequivocal  truth  to 
the  domain  of  philosophy  " — the  path  which,  as  all  modern  his- 
tory proves,  has  ever  since  led  only  to  delusion  and  evil.* 

The  theological  path  thus  opened  by  these  strong  men  became 
the  main  path  for  science  during  ages,  and  it  led  the  world  ever 
further  and  further  from  any  fruitful  fact  or  useful  method. 

*  For  the  work  of  Aquinas,  see  his  Liber  de  Coelo  et  Mundo,  section  xx ;  also,  Life  and 
Labors  of  St.  Thomas  of  Aquin,  by  Archbishop  Vaughan,  pp.  459  et  seq.  For  his  labors  in 
natural  science,  see  Hoefer,  Histoire  de  la  Chimie,  Paris,  1843,  vol.  i,  p.  381.  For  theological 
views  of  science  in  the  middle  ages,  and  rejoicing  thereat,  see  Pouchet,  Hist,  des  Sci.  Nat 
au  Moyen  Age,  ubi  supra.  Pouchet  says  :  "  En  general  an  milieu  du  moyen  age  les  sciences 
sont  essentiellement  chretiennes,  leur  but  est  tout-a-fait  religieux,  et  elles  semblent  beaucoup 
moins  s'inquieter  de  1'avancement  intellectual  de  Phomme  que  de  son  salut  eternel."  Pouchet 
calls  this  "  conciliation  "  into  a  "  harmonieux  ensemble  "  "  la  plus  glorieuse  des  conqufi  tes 
intellectuelles  du  moyen  age."  Pouchet  belongs  to  Rouen,  and  the  shadow  of  Rouen 
Cathedral  seems  thrown  over  all  his  history.  See,  also,  1'Abbe"  Rohrbacher,  Hist  de 
1'Eglise  Catholique,  Paris,  1858,  vol.  xviii,  pp.  421  et  seq.  The  abbe"  dilates  upon  the  fact 
that  "  the  Church  organizes  the  agreement  of  all  the  sciences  by  the  labors  of  St.  Thomas 
of  Aquin  and  his  contemporaries."  For  the  complete  subordination  of  science  to  theology 
by  St.  Thomas,  see  Eicken,  chap.  vi.  For  the  theological  character  of  science  in  the  middle 
ages,  recognized  by  a  Protestant  philosophic  historian,  see  the  well-known  passage  in  Guizot, 
History  of  Civilization  in  Europe ;  and  by  a  noted  Protestant  ecclesiastic,  see  Bishop  Hamp- 
den's  Life  of  Thomas  Aquinas,  chaps,  xxxvi,  xxxvii ;  see  also  Hallam,  Middle  Ages,  chap, 
ix.  For  dealings  of  Pope  John  XXII,  of  the  Kings  of  France  and  England,  and  of  the  Re- 
public of  Venice,  see  Figuier,  L'Alchimie  et  les  Alchimistes,  pp.  140,  141,  where,  in  a  note, 
the  text  of  the  bull  Spondent  Pariter  is  given.  For  popular  legends  regarding  Albert  and 
St.  Thomas,  see  Elephas  Levi,  Hist,  de  la  Magie,  chap.  v. 


10  NEW  CHAPTERS  IN  THE   WARFARE   OF  SCIENCE. 

Roger  Bacon's  investigations  already  begun  were  discredited; 
worthless  mixtures  of  scriptural  legends  with  imperfectly  au- 
thenticated physical  facts  took  their  place.  Thus  it  was  that  for 
twelve  hundred  years  the  minds  in  control  of  Europe  regarded 
all  real  science  as  futile,  and  diverted  the  great  current  of  earnest 
thought  into  theology. 

The  next  stage  in  this  evolution  was  the  development  of  an 
idea  which  acted  with  great  force  throughout  the  middle  ages 
— the  idea  that  science  is  dangerous.  As  we  have  seen  in  other 
chapters,  there  was  evolved  more  and  more  a  vivid  sense  of  the 
interference  of  Satan  with  human  affairs,  and  especially  of  the 
interference  of  the  ancient  gods  whom  St.  Paul  had  explicitly 
declared  to  be  devils,  and  who  were  naturally  indignant  at  their 
dethronement.  More  and  more  suspicion  attached  to  all  men 
who  attempted  anything  in  the  development  of  science.  The 
old  scriptural  warrrant  for  the  existence  of  sorcery  and  magic 
was  brought  in  as  a  powerful  argument  against  such  men. 
The  conscience  of  th«  time,  therefore,  acting  in  obedience  to 
the  highest  authorities  in  the  Church,  and,  as  was  supposed,  in 
defense  of  religion,  brought  out  a  missile  which  it  hurled  against 
scientific  investigators  with  deadly  effect ;  the  mediaeval  battle- 
fields of  thought  were  strewn  with  such ;  it  was  the  charge  of  sor- 
cery and  magic — of  unlawful  compact  with  the  devil.  This  mis- 
sile was  effective.  We  find  it  used  against  every  great  investi- 
gator of  Nature  in  those  times  and  for  ages  after.  The  list  of 
great  men  in  those  centuries  charged  with  magic,  as  given  by 
Naudd,  is  astounding ;  it  includes  every  man  of  real  mark,  and  in 
the  midst  of  them  stands  one  of  the  most  thoughtful  popes,  Syl- 
vester II  (Gerbert),  and  the  foremost  of  mediaeval  thinkers  on 
natural  science,  Albert  the  Great.  It  came  to  be  the  accepted 
idea  that  as  soon  as  a  man  conceived  a  wish  to  study  the  works  of 
God  his  first  step  must  be  a  league  with  the  devil.* 

The  first  great  thinker  who,  in  spite  of  some  stumbling  into 
theologic  pitfalls,  persevered  in  a  truly  scientific  path,  was  Roger 
Bacon.  His  life  and  works  seem  until  recently  to  have  been  gen- 
erally misunderstood :  he  was  formerly  ranked  as  a  superstitious 
alchemist  who  happened  upon  some  inventions,  but  more  recent 
investigation  has  shown  him  to  be  one  of  the  great  masters  in  the 
evolution  of  human  thought.  The  advance  of  sound  historical 
judgment  seems  likely  to  bring  the  fame  of  the  two  who  bear 
the  name  of  Bacon  nearer  to  equality.  Bacon  of  the  chancellor- 

*  For  the  charge  of  magic  against  scholars  and  others,  see  Naude,  Apologie  pour  \es 
grands  hommes  soupconn^s  de  Magie,  passim ;  also,  Maury,  Hist,  de  la  Magie,  troisieme 
edit,  pp.  214,  215 ;  also,  Cuvier,  Hist  des  Sciences  Naturelles,  vol.  i,  p.  396.  For  a  circum- 
stantial account  of  this  charge  of  magic  against  Pope  Boniface  VIII,  see  Milman,  Latin 
Christianity,  Book  XII,  chap.  iii. 


NEW  CHAPTERS  IN  THE  WARFARE  OF  SCIENCE.  11 

ship  and  of  the  Novum  Organum  may  not  wane,  but  Bacon  of 
the  prison-cell  and  the  Opus  Major  steadily  approaches  him  in 
brightness. 

More  than  three  centuries  before  Francis  Bacon  advocated  the 
experimental  method,  Roger  Bacon  practiced  it,  and  the  results  as 
now  revealed  are  wonderful.  He  wrought  with  power  in  many 
sciences,  and  his  knowledge  was  sound  and  exact.  By  him,  more 
than  by  any  other  man  of  the  middle  ages,  was  the  world  brought 
into  the  more  fruitful  paths  of  scientific  thought — the  paths 
which  have  led  to  the  most  precious  inventions ;  and  among  these 
are  clocks,  lenses,  burning  specula,  telescopes,  which  were  given 
by  him  to  the  world,  directly  or  indirectly.  In  his  writings  are 
found  formulae  for  extracting  phosphorus,  manganese,  and  bis- 
muth. It  is  even  claimed,  with  much  appearance  of  justice,  that 
he  investigated  the  power  of  steam,  and  he  seems  to  have  very 
nearly  reached  some  of  the  principal  doctrines  of  modern  chem- 
istry. But  it  should  be  borne  in  mind  that  his  method  of  investi- 
gation was  even  greater  than  its  results.  *'  In  an  age  when  theo- 
logical subtilizing  was  alone  thought  to  give  the  title  of  scholar, 
he  insisted  on  real  reasoning  and  the  aid  of  natural  science  by 
mathematics ;  in  an  age  when  experimenting  was  sure  to  cost  a 
man  his  reputation,  and  was  likely  to  cost  him  his  life,  he  insisted 
on  experimenting,  and  braved  all  its  risks.  Few  greater  men  have 
lived.  As  we  read  the  sketch  given  by  Whewell  of  Bacon's  pro- 
cess of  reasoning  regarding  the  refraction  of  light,  he  seems  di- 
vinely inspired. 

On  this  man  came  the  brunt  of  the  battle.  The  most  con- 
scientious men  of  his  time  thought  it  their  duty  to  fight  him,  and 
they  fought  him  steadily  and  bitterly.  His  sin  was  not  disbelief  in 
Christianity,  not  want  of  fidelity  to  the  Church,  not  even  dissent 
from  the  main  lines  of  orthodoxy ;  on  the  contrary,  he  showed 
in  all  his  writings  a  desire  to  strengthen  Christianity,  to  build  up 
the  Church,  and  to  develop  orthodoxy.  He  was  attacked  and  con- 
demned mainly  because  he  did  not  believe  that  philosophy  had 
become  complete,  and  that  nothing  more  was  to  be  learned ;  he 
was  condemned,  as  his  opponents  expressly  declared,  "  on  account 
of  certain  suspicious  novelties" — "  propter  quasdam  novitates  sus- 
pectas"  % 

Upon  his  return  to  Oxford,  about  1250,  the  forces  of  unreason 
beset  him  on  all  sides.  Greatest  of  all  his  enemies  was  Bonaven- 
tura.  This  enemy  was  the  theologic  idol  of  the  period :  the 
learned  world  knew  him  as  the  "  seraphic  Doctor " ;  Dante  gave 
him  an  honored  place  in  the  great  poem  of  the  middle  ages ;  the 
Church  finally  enrolled  him  among  the  saints.  By  force  of  great 
ability  in  theology  he  had  become  in  the  middle  of  the  thirteenth 
century  general  of  the  Franciscan  order ;  thus,  as  Bacon's  master, 


12  NEW   CHAPTERS  IN  THE   WARFARE  OF  SCIENCE. 

his  hands  were  laid  heavily  on  the  new  teaching,  so  that  in  1257 
the  troublesome  monk  was  forbidden  to  lecture;  all  men  were 
solemnly  warned  not  to  listen  to  his  teaching,  and  he  was  ordered 
to  Paris,  to  be  kept  under  surveillance  by  the  monastic  authori- 
ties. Herein  was  exhibited  another  of  the  myriad  examples 
showing  the  care  exercised  over  scientific  teaching  by  the 
Church.  The  reasons  for  thus  dealing  with  Bacon  were  evident : 
First,  he  had  dared  attempt  scientific  explanations  of  natural 
phenomena,  which,  under  the  mystic  theology  of  the  middle 
ages,  had  been  referred  simply  to  supernatural  causes.  Typical 
was  his  explanation  of  the  causes  and  character  of  the  rainbow. 
It  was  clear,  cogent,  a  great  step  in  the  right  direction  as  regards 
physical  science:  but  there,  in  the  book  of  Genesis,  stood  the 
time-honored  legend  regarding  the  origin  of  the  rainbow,  sup- 
posed to  have  been  dictated  immediately  by  the  Holy  Spirit ;  and, 
according  to  that,  the  "  bow  in  the  cloud  "  was  not  the  result  of 
natural  laws,  but  a  "  sign  "  arbitrarily  placed  in  the  heavens  for 
the  simple  purpose  of  assuring  mankind  that  there  should  not  be 
another  universal  deluge. 

But  this  was  not  the  worst :  another  theological  idea  was  ar- 
rayed against  him, — the  idea  of  satanic  intervention  in  science ; 
hence  he  was  attacked  with  that  goodly  missile  which  with  the 
epithets  "  infidel "  and  "  atheist "  has  decided  the  fate  of  so  many 
battles— the  charge  of  magic  and  compact  with  Satan. 

He  defended  himself  with  a  most  unfortunate  weapon — a 
weapon  which  exploded  in  his  hands  and  injured  him  more  than 
the  enemy.  For  he  argued  against  the  idea  of  compacts  with 
Satan,  and  showed  that  much  which  is  ascribed  to  demons  results 
from  natural  means.  This  added  fuel  to  the  flame ;  to  limit  the 
power  of  Satan  was  deemed  hardly  less  impious  than  to  limit  the 
power  of  God. 

The  most  powerful  protectors  availed  him  little.  His  friend 
Guy  Foulkes,  having  in  1265  been  made  pope  under  the  name  of 
Clement  IV,  shielded  Bacon  for  a  time;  but  the  fury  of  the 
enemy  was  too  strong,  and  when  he  made  ready  to  perform  a  few 
experiments  before  a  small  audience,  we  are  told  that  all  Oxford 
was  in  an  uproar.  It  was  believed  that  Satan  was  about  to  be  let 
loose.  Everywhere  priests,  monks,  fellows,  and  students  rushed 
about,  their  garments  streaming  in  the  wind,  and  everywhere 
rose  the  cry,  "  Down  with  the  magician ! "  and  this  cry,  "  Down 
with  the  magician ! "  resounded  from  cell  to  cell,  and  from  hall 
to  hall. 

Another  weapon  was  also  used  upon  the  battle-fields  of  science 
in  that  time  with  much  effect.  The  Arabs  had  made  many  noble 
discoveries  in  science,  and  Averroes  had,  in  the  opinion  of  many, 
divided  the  honors  with  St.  Thomas  Aquinas;  these  facts  gave 


NEW  CHAPTERS  IN   THE   WARFARE   OF  SCIENCE.   13 

the  new  missile— it  was  the  epithet  "  Mohammedan  " — this  too  was 
flung  with  effect  at  Bacon. 

The  attack  now  began  to  take  its  final  shape.  The  two  great 
religious  orders,  Franciscan  and  Dominican,  then  in  all  the  vigor 
of  their  youth,  vied  with  each  other  in  fighting  the  new  thought 
in  chemistry  and  physics.  St.  Dominic  solemnly  condemned  re- 
search by  experiment  and  observation ;  the  general  of  the  Fran- 
ciscan order  took  similar  ground.  In  1243  the  Dominicans  inter- 
dicted every  member  of  their  order  from  the  study  of  medicine 
and  natural  philosophy,  and  in  1287  this  interdiction  was  extended 
to  the  study  of  chemistry. 

In  1278  the  authorities  of  the  Franciscan  order,  assembled  at 
Paris,  solemnly  condemned  Bacon's  teaching,  and  the  general  of 
the  Franciscans,  Jerome  d'Ascoli,  afterward  Pope,  threw  him  into 
prison,  where  he  remained  for  fourteen  years.  Though  Pope 
Clement  VI  had  protected  him,  Popes  Nicholas  III  and  IV,  by 
virtue  of  their  infallibility,  decided  that  he  was  too  dangerous  to 
be  at  large,  and  he  was  only  released  at  the  age  of  eighty,  but  a 
year  or  two  before  death  placed  him  beyond  the  reach  of  his  ene- 
mies. How  deeply  the  struggle  had  racked  his  mind  may  be 
gathered  from  that  last  affecting  declaration  of  his,  "Would 
that  I  had  not  given  myself  so  much  trouble  for  the  love  of 
science ! " 

The  attempt  has  been  made  by  sundry  champions  of  the 
Church  to  show  that  some  of  Bacon's  utterances  against  eccle- 
siastical and  other  corruptions  in  his  time  were  the  main  cause 
of  the  severity  which  the  Church  authorities  exercised  against 
him.  This  helps  the  Church  but  little,  even  if  it  be  well  based, 
but  it  is  not  well  based.  That  some  of  his  utterances  of  this  sort 
made  him  enemies  is  doubtless  true,  but  the  charges  on  which  St. 
Bonaventura  silenced  him,  and  Jerome  of  Ascoli  imprisoned  him, 
and  successive  popes  kept  him  in  prison  for  fourteen  years,  were 
"dangerous  novelties"  and  suspected  sorcery. 

Sad  is  it  to  think  of  what  this  great  man  might  have  given  to 
the  world  had  ecclesiasticism  allowed  the  gift.  He  held  the  key 
of  treasures  which  would  have  freed  mankind  from  ages  of  error 
and  misery.  With  his  discoveries  as  a  basis,  with  his  method 
as  a  guide,  what  might  not  the  world  have  gained!  Nor  was 
the  wrong  done  to  that  age  alone ;  it  was  done  to  this  age  also. 
The  nineteenth  century  was  robbed  at  the  same  time  with  the 
thirteenth.  But  for  that  interference  with  science  the  nine- 
teenth century  would  be  enjoying  discoveries  which  will  not 
be  reached  before  th,e  twentieth  century.  Thousands  of  precious 
lives  shall  be  lost  in  this  century,  tens  of  thousands  shall  suffer 
discomfort,  privation,  sickness,  poverty,  ignorance,  for  lack  of 
discoveries  and  methods  which,  but  for  this  mistaken  dealing 


14  NEW  CHAPTERS  IN   THE  WARFARE   OF  SCIENCE. 

with  Roger  Bacon  and  his  compeers,  would  now  be  blessing  the 
earth. 

In  two  recent  years  sixty  thousand  children  died  in  England 
and  in  Wales  of  scarlet  fever ;  probably  quite  as  many  died  in  the 
United  States.  Had  not  Bacon  been  hindered,  we  should  have 
had  in  our  hands,  by  this  time,  the  means  to  save  two  thirds  of 
these  victims ;  and  the  same  is  true  of  typhoid,  typhus,  cholera, 
and  that  great  class  of  diseases  of  whose  physical  causes  science 
is  just  beginning  to  get  an  inkling.  Put  together  all  the  efforts 
of  all  the  atheists  who  have  ever  lived,  and  they  have  not  done  so 
much  harm  to  Christianity  and  the  world  as  has  been  done  by 
the  narrow-minded,  conscientious  men  who  persecuted  Roger 
Bacon,  and  closed  the  path  which  he  gave  his  life  to  open. 

But  despite  the  persecution  of  Bacon  and  the  defection  of  those 
who  ought  to  have  followed  him,  champions  of  the  experimental 
method  rose  from  time  to  time  during  the  succeeding  centuries. 
We  know  little  of  them  personally ;  our  main  knowledge  of  their 
efforts  is  derived  from  the  endeavors  of  their  persecutors. 

In  1317  Pope  John  XXII  issued  his  bull,  Spondent  pariter, 
leveled  at  the  alchemists,  but  really  dealing  a  terrible  blow  at 
the  beginnings  of  chemical  science.  That  many  alchemists  were 
knavish  is  no  doubt  true,  but  no  infallibility  in  separating  the 
evil  from  the  good  was  shown  by  the  papacy  in  this  matter.  In 
this  and  in  sundry  other  bulls  and  briefs  we  find  Pope  John,  by 
virtue  of 'his  infallibility  as  the  world's  instructor  in  all  that  per- 
tains to  faith  and  morals,  condemning  real  science  and  pseudo- 
science  alike.  In  two  of  these  documents,  supposed  to  be  inspired 
by  wisdom  from  on  high,  he  complains  that  both  he  and  his  flock 
are  in  danger  of  their  lives  by  the  arts  of  sorcerers ;  he  declares 
that  such  sorcerers  can  send  devils  into  mirrors  and  finger- 
rings,  and  kill  men  and  women  by  a  magic  word ;  that  they  had 
tried  to  kill  him  by  piercing  his  waxen  image  with  needles,  in  the 
name  of  the  devil.  He,  therefore,  called  on  all  rulers,  secular  and 
ecclesiastical,  to  hunt  down  the  miscreants  who  thus  afflicted  the 
faithful,  and  he  especially  increased  the  powers  of  inquisitors  in 
various  parts  of  Europe  for  this  purpose. 

The  impulse  thus  given  to  childish  fear  and  hatred  against  the 
investigation  of  Nature  was  felt  for  centuries.  More  and  more 
chemistry  came  to  be  known  as  one  of  the  "  seven  devilish  arts." 

These  declarations  of  Pope  John  were  echoed  for  generation 
after  generation,  until  nearly  three  hundred  years  later  there 
came  the  yet  more  terrible  bull  of  Pope  Innocent  VIII,  known  as 
Summis  Desideranies,  which  let  inquisitors  loose  upon  Germany, 
and  armed  them  with  the  malleus  maleficarum,  to  torture  and 
destroy  men  and  women  by  tens  of  thousands  for  sorcery  and 
magic. 


NEW  CHAPTERS  IN  THE   WARFARE   OF  SCIENCE.   15 


Under  such  guidance  the  secular  rulers  were  naturally  vigor- 
ous in  the  same  policy.  In  1380  Charles  V  of  France  forbade  the 
possession  of  furnaces  and  apparatus  necessary  for  chemical  pro- 
cesses. Under  this  law  the  chemist  John  Barrillon  was  thrown 
into  prison,  and  it  was  only  by  the  greatest  effort  that  his  life 
was  saved.  In  1404  Henry  IV  of  England  issued  a  similar  decree, 
and  in  1418  the  Republic  of  Venice  followed  these  examples. 

But  champions  of  science  still  pressed  on.    The  judicial  tor- 
ture and  murder  of  Antonio  de  Dominis  were  not  simply  for 
heresy ;  his  investigations  in  the  phenomena  of  light  were  an 
additional  crime.    Pierre  de  la  Rame'e  fell  in  the  massacre  of  St. 
Bartholomew  as  a  heretic,  but  his  teachings  had  previously  been 
1  - J:^  ""»«!>*  Vrn-  t.Tie  Church  on  account  of  his 
~>  \  5  I  P  'al  methods.* 

DATE  DUE 

te  Magiae,  see  Hoefer.     For  the  uproar 
Seschichte  der  Chemie,  Braunschweig, 
.-y  discussion  of  Bacon's  relation  to  the 
me  author,  Ansichten  iiber  die  Aufgabe 
,  for  an  excellent  summary,  see  Hoefer, 
bly  the  most  thorough  study  of  Bacon's 
universe,  see  Prof.  Werner,  Die  Kosmo- 
Wien,  1879.    For  summaries  of  his  work 
)raper,  p.  438 ;  Saisset,  Descartes  et  see 
"arrisson,  Progr&s  de  la  Pensee  humaine, 
e,  Paris,  1865,  vol.  ii,  p.  397;   Cuvier, 
3  to  Bacon's  orthodoxy,  see  Saisset,  pp. 
m's  condemnation,  see  Waddington,  cited 
herstonhaugh's  article  in  North  American 
Bacon's  relation  to  the  world  in  his 
been  thwarted  by  theology,  see  Dollinger, 
London,  1890,  pp.  178,  179.     For  a  good 
»f  Satan,  even  in  much  more  recent  times 
ent  of  Bekker's  Monde  Enchante  by  the- 
Livres  Populates,  vol.  i,  pp.  172,  173. 
some  skepticism  as  to  Roger  Bacon  being 
ributed  to  him ;  but,  after  all  deductions 
con  the  greatest  benefactor  to  humanity 
devotion  to  religion  and  the  Church,  see 
>n,  Augsburg,  1873,  p.  112;  also,  citation 
.on  as  a  "  Mohammedan,"  see  Saisset,  p.  17. 
j  by  the  Dominicans  and  Franciscans,  see 
For  the  suppression  of  chemical  teaching 
stoire  de  France,  vol.  xii,  pp.  14,  15.     For 
great  discoveries  as  to  the  cause  and  pre- 
jation,  see  Beale's  Disease  Germs,  Baldwin 
raite  d'Hygiene  Publique  et  Privde.     For 
for  an  example  of  injury  done  by  it,  see 
and  for  a  studiously  moderate  statement, 
For  character  and  general  efforts  of  John 
seq.     For  the  character  of  the  two  pupal 


i4  NEW  CHAPTERS  IN   THE  WARFARE   OF  SCIENCE. 

with  Roger  Bacon  and  his  compeers,  would  now  be  blessing  the 
earth. 

In  two  recent  years  sixty  thousand  children  died  in  England 
and  in  Wales  of  scarlet  fever ;  probably  quite  as  many  died  in  the 
United  States.  Had  not  Bacon  been  hindered,  we  should  have 
had  in  our  hands,  by  this  time,  the  means  to  save  two  thirds  of 
these  victims ;  and  the  same  is  true  of  typhoid,  typhus,  cholera, 
and  that  great  class  of  diseases  of  whose  physical  causes  science 
is  just  beginning  to  get  an  inkling.  Put  together  all  the  efforts 
of  all  the  atheists  who  have  ever  lived,  and  they  have  not  done  so 
much  harm  to  Christianity  and  the  world  as  has  been  done  by 
the  narrow-minded,  conscientious  men  who  persecuted  Roger 
Bacon,  and  closed  the  path  wliiafc"*""1"'" ••*  •  * '  •  ' 

But  despite  the  persecutic 
who  ought  to  have  followed 
method  rose  from  time  to  tii 
We  know  little  of  them  pers( 
efforts  is  derived  from  the  en 

In  1317  Pope  John  XXI 
leveled  at  the  alchemists,  bi 
the  beginnings  of  chemical  sc 
knavish  is  no  doubt  true,  bi 
evil  from  the  good  was  shov 
this  and  in  sundry  other  bull; 
virtue  of -his  infallibility  as  tl 
tains  to  faith  and  morals,  co 
science  alike.    In  two  of  these 
by  wisdom  from  on  high,  he  c 
are  in  danger  of  their  lives  fr 
that  such  sorcerers  can    sen 
rings,  and  kill  men  and  wome 
tried  to  kill  him  by  piercing  h 
name  of  the  devil.     He,  theref 
ecclesiastical,  to  hunt  down  th 
faithful,  and  he  especially  incr 
various  parts  of  Europe  for  th 

The  impulse  thus  given  to  c 
investigation  of  Nature  was  f 
chemistry  came  to  be  known  a 

These  declarations  of  Pope 
after  generation,  until  nearly 
came  the  yet  more  terrible  bull 
Summis  Desiderantes,  which  k 
and  armed  them  with  the  me 
destroy  men  and  women  by  t« 
magic. 


NEW  CHAPTERS  IN   THE   WARFARE   OF  SCIENCE.   15 

Under  such,  guidance  the  secular  rulers  were  naturally  vigor- 
ous in  the  same  policy.  In  1380  Charles  V  of  France  forbade  the 
possession  of  furnaces  and  apparatus  necessary  for  chemical  pro- 
cesses. Under  this  law  the  chemist  John  Barrillon  was  thrown 
into  prison,  and  it  was  only  by  the  greatest  effort  that  his  life 
was  saved.  In  1404  Henry  IV  of  England  issued  a  similar  decree, 
and  in  1418  the  Republic  of  Venice  followed  these  examples. 

But  champions  of  science  still  pressed  on.  The  judicial  tor- 
ture and  murder  of  Antonio  de  Domiuis  were  not  simply  for 
heresy;  his  investigations  in  the  phenomena  of  light  were  an 
additional  crime.  Pierre  de  la  Rame'e  fell  in  the  massacre  of  St. 
Bartholomew  as  a  heretic,  but  his  teachings  had  previously  been 
stopped  by  a  royal  edict,  sought  by  the  Church  on  account  of  his 
breaking  away  from  the  old  theological  methods.* 


*  For  an  account  of  Bacon's  treatise,  De  Nullitate  Magise,  see  Hoefer.  For  the  uproar 
caused  by  Bacon's  teaching  at  Oxford,  see  Kopp,  Geschichte  der  Chemie,  Braunschweig, 
1343,  vol.  i,  p.  63  ;  and  for  a  somewhat  reactionary  discussion  of  Bacon's  relation  to  the 
progress  of  chemistry,  see  a  recent  work  by  the  same  author,  Ansichten  iiber  die  Aufgabe 
der  Chemie,  Braunschweig,  1874,  pp.  85  et  seq. ;  also,  for  an  excellent  summary,  see  Hoefer, 
Hist,  de  la  Chimie,  vol.  i,  pp.  368  et  seq.  For  probably  the  most  thorough  study  of  Bacon's 
general  works  in  science,  and  for  his  views  of  the  universe,  see  Prof.  Werner,  Die  Kosmo- 
logie  und  allgemeine  Naturlehre  des  Roger  Baco,  Wien,  1879.  For  summaries  of  his  work 
in  other  fields,  see  Whewell,  vol.  i,  pp.  367,  368 ;  Draper,  p.  438 ;  Saisset,  Descartes  et  see 
Precurseurs,  deuxieme  edition,  pp.  397  et  seq. ;  Nourrisson,  Progres  de  la  Pense'e  humaine, 
pp.  271,  272;  Sprengel,  Histoire  de  la  Mddecine,  Paris,  1865,  vol.  ii,  p.  397;  Cuvier, 
Histoire  des  Sciences  Naturelles,  vol.  i,  p.  417.  As  to  Bacon's  orthodoxy,  see  Saisset,  pp. 
53,  55.  For  special  examination  of  causes  of  Bacon's  condemnation,  see  Waddington,  cited 
by  Saisset,  p.  14.  On  Bacon  as  a  sorcerer,  see  Featherstonhaugh's  article  in  North  American 
Review.  For  a  brief  but  admirable  statement  of  Roger  Bacon's  relation  to  the  world  in  his 
time,  and  of  what  he  might  have  done  had  he  not  been  thwarted  by  theology,  see  Dollinger, 
Studies  in  European  History,  English  translation,  London,  1890,  pp.  178,  179.  For  a  good 
example  of  the  danger  of  denying  the  full  power  of  Satan,  even  in  much  more  recent  times 
and  in  a  Protestant  country,  see  account  of  treatment  of  Bekker's  Monde  Enchante  by  the- 
theologians  of  Holland,  in  Nisard,  Histoire  des  Livres  Populaires,  vol.  i,  pp.  172,  173. 
Kopp,  in  his  Ansichten,  pushes  criticism  even  to  some  skepticism  as  to  Roger  Bacon  being 
the  discoverer  of  many  of  the  tilings  generally  attributed  to  him ;  but,  after  all  deductions 
are  carefully  made,  enough  remains  to  make  Bacon  the  greatest  benefactor  to  humanity 
during  the  middle  ages.  For  Roger  Bacon's  deep  devotion  to  religion  and  the  Church,  see 
citation  and  remarks  in  Schneider,  Roger  Bacon,  Augsburg,  1873,  p.  112;  also,  citation 
from  the  Opus  Majus  in  Eicken,  chap.  vi.  On  Bacon  as  a  "  Mohammedan,"  see  Saisset,  p.  17. 
For  the  interdiction  of  studies  in  physical  science  by  the  Dominicans  and  Franciscans,  see 
Henri  Martin,  Histoire  de  France,  vol.  iv,  p.  283.  For  the  suppression  of  chemical  teaching 
by  the  Parliament  of  Paris,  see  Henri  Martin,  Histoire  de  France,  vol.  xii,  pp.  14,  15.  For 
proofs  that  the  world  is  steadily  working  toward  great  discoveries  as  to  the  cause  and  pre- 
vention of  zymotic  diseases  and  of  their  propagation,  see  Beale's  Disease  Germs,  Baldwin 
Latham's  Sanitary  Engineering,  Michel  Levy's  Traite  d'Hygi&ne  Publique  et  Priv6e.  For 
a  summary  of  the  bull  Spondent  pariter,  and  for  an  example  of  injury  done  by  it,  see 
Schneider,  Geschichte  der  Alchemie,  p.  160 ;  and  for  a  studiously  moderate  statement, 
Milman,  Latin  Christianity,  Book  XII,  chap.  vi.  For  character  and  general  efforts  of  John 
XXII,  see  Lea,  Inquisition,  iii,  436,  also  452  et  seq.  For  the  character  of  the  two  papal 


16  NEW  CHAPTERS  IN   THE  WARFARE   OF  SCIENCE. 

To  question  the  theological  view  of  physical  science  was,  even 
long  after  the  close  of  the  middle  ages,  exceedingly  perilous.  We 
have  seen  in  this  chapter  how  one  of  Roger  Bacon's  unpardonable 
offenses  was  his  argument  against  the  efficacy  of  magic,  and  in 
chapters  preceding  how  centuries  afterward  Wyer,  Flade,  Bekker, 
and  a  multitude  of  other  investigators  and  thinkers  suffered  con- 
fiscation of  property,  loss  of  position,  and  even  torture  and  death, 
for  similar  views.  I  will  refer,  then,  to  but  one  more  case  as 
typical. 

In  the  last  year  of  the  sixteenth  century  the  persecutions  for 
witchcraft  and  magic  were  especially  cruel  in  the  western  districts 
of  Germany,  the  main  instrument  in  them  being  Binsfeld,  Suf- 
fragan Bishop  of  Treves. 

At  that  time  Cornelius  Loos  was  a  professor  at  the  university 
of  that  city.  He  was  a  devoted  churchman,  and  one  of  the  most 
brilliant  opponents  of  Protestantism,  but  he  finally  saw  through 
the  prevailing  belief  regarding  occult  powers,  and  in  an  evil  hour 
for  himself  embodied  his  idea  in  a  book  entitled  "  True  and  False 
Magic."  The  book,  though  earnest,  was  temperate,  but  this  helped 
him  and  his  cause  not  at  all.  The  texts  of  Scripture  clearly 
sanctioning  belief  in  sorcery  and  magic  stood  against  him,  and 
these  had  been  confirmed  by  the  infallible  teachings  of  the  Church 
and  the  popes  from  time  immemorial ;  the  book  was  stopped  in 
the  press,  the  manuscript  confiscated,  and  Loos  thrown  into  a 
dungeon. 

The  inquisitors  having  wrought  their  will  upon  him,  in  the 
spring  of  1593  he  was  brought  out  of  prison,  forced  to  recant  on 
his  knees  before  the  assembled  dignitaries  of  the  Church,  and 
thenceforward  kept  constantly  under  surveillance,  and  at  times  in 
prison.  Even  this  was  considered  too  light  a  punishment,  and  his 
arch-enemy,  the  Jesuit  Del  Rio,  declared  that  but  for  his  death  by 
plague  he  would  have  been  finally  sent  to  the  stake.  His  manu- 
script, hidden  away  in  the  archives  at  Treves,  was  supposed  to 
be  lost  until  within  the  present  decade.  After  three  centuries 
what  remains  of  it  has  been  brought  to  light  by  an  American 
scholar.* 


briefs,  see  Rydberg,  p.  177.  For  the  Bull  Summit  Desiderantes,  see  previous  chapters  of  this 
work.  For  Antonio  de  Dominis,  see  Montucla,  Hist,  des  Math6matiques,  vol.  i,  p.  705,  Hum. 
boldt,  Cosmos,  Libri,  vol.  iv,  pp.  145  et  seg. 

*  Prof.  George  Lincoln  Burr,  of  Cornell  University,  whose  copy  of  Loos's  MS.  is  now  in 
the  library  of  that  institution.  For  a  full  account  of  the  discovery  and  its  significance,  see 
the  New  York  Evening  Post  for  November  13,  1886.  The  facts  regarding  the  after-life  of 
Loos,  were  discovered  by  Prof.  Burr  in  the  archives  at  Brussels.  For  Weyer,  Flade,  Bekker, 
and  others,  see  the  chapters  of  this  work  on  Demoniacal  Possession  and  Insanity,  and  Dia- 
bolism and  Hysteria. 


NEW  CHAPTERS  IN   THE   WARFARE  OF  SCIENCE.  17 


PART    II. 

WE  have  seen  thus  far,  first,  how  such  men  as  Eusebius,  Lac- 
taiitius,  and  their  compeers,  discouraged  scientific  investi- 
gation as  futile;  next,  how  such  men  as  Albert  the  Great,  St. 
Thomas  Aquinas,  and  the  multitude  who  followed  them,  turned 
the  main  current  of  mediaeval  thought  from  science  to  theology ; 
and,  finally,  how  such  Church  authorities  as  Popes  John  XXII 
and  Innocent  VIII,  and  the  heads  of  the  great  religious  orders, 
endeavored  to  crush  what  was  left  of  scientific  research  as  dan- 
gerous. 

Yet,  injurious  as  all  this  was  to  the  evolution  of  science,  there 
was  developed  something  far  more  destructive ;  and  this  was  the 
influence  of  mystic  theology,  penetrating,  permeating,  sterilizing 
nearly  every  branch  of  science  for  hundreds  of  years.  Among  the 
forms  taken  by  this  development  in  the  earlier  middle  ages  we 
find  a  mixture  of  physical  science  with  a  pseudo-science  obtained 
from  texts  of  Scripture.  In  compounding  this  mixture,  Jews  and 
Christians  vied  with  each  other.  In  this  process  the  sacred  books 
were  used  as  a  fetich ;  every  word,  every  letter,  being  considered  to 
have  a  divine  and  hidden  meaning.  By  combining  various  script- 
ural letters  in  various  abstruse  ways,  new  words  of  prodigious  sig- 
nificance in  magic  were  obtained,  and  among  them  the  great  word 
embracing  the  seventy-two  mystical  names  of  God — the  mighty 
word  "  Schemhamphoras."  Why  should  men  seek  knowledge  by 
observation  and  experiment  in  the  book  of  Nature,  when  the  book 
of  Revelation  opened  such  treasures  to  the  ingenious  believer? 

So,  too,  we  have  ancient  mystical  theories  of  number  which 
the  theological  spirit  had  made  Christian,  usurping  an  enormous 
place  in  mediaeval  science.  The  sacred  power  of  the  number  three 
was  seen  in  the  Trinity ;  in  the  three  main  divisions  of  the  uni- 
verse— the  empyrean,  the  heavens,  and  the  earth;,  in  the  three 
angelic  hierarchies;  in  the  three  choirs  of  seraphim,  cherubim, 
and  thrones;  in  the  three  of  dominions,  virtues,  and  powers;  in 
the  three  of  principalities,  archangels,  and  angels;  in  the  three 
orders  in  th.e  Church— bishops,  priests,  and  deacons ;  in  the  three 
classes — the  baptized,  the  communicants,  and  the  monks  ;  in  the 
three  degrees  of  attainment — light,  purity,  and  knowledge ;  in  the 
three  theological  virtues — faith,  hope,  and  charity — and  in  much 
else.  All  this  was  brought  into  a  theologico-scientific  relation, 
then  and  afterward,  with  the  three  dimensions  of  space ;  with  the 
three  divisions  of  time — past,  present,  and  future ;  with  the  three 
realms  of  the  visible  world — sky,  earth,  and  sea ;  with  the  three 
constituents  of  man — body,  soul,  and  spirit;  with  the  threefold 
enemies  of  man — the  flesh,  the  world,  and  the  devil ;  with  the 
2 


i8  NEW   CHAPTERS  IN   THE   WARFARE   OF  SCIENCE. 

three  kingdoms  in  Nature — mineral,  vegetable,  and  animal ;  with 
"  the  three  colors  " — red,  yellow,  and  blue ;  with  "  the  three  eyes  of 
the  honey-bee  " — and  with  a  multitude  of  other  analogues  equally 
precious.  The  sacred  power  of  the  number  seven  was  seen  in  the 
seven  golden  candlesticks  and  the  seven  churches  in  the  Apoca- 
lypse ;  in  the  seven  cardinal  virtues  and  the  seven  deadly  sins ; 
in  the  seven  liberal  arts  and  the  seven  devilish  arts,  and,  above 
all,  in  the  seven  sacraments.  And  as  this  proved  in  astrology 
that  there  could  be  only  seven  planets,  so  it  proved  in  alchemy 
that  there  must  be  exactly  seven  metals  in  the  electrum  magicum. 
The  twelve  apostles  were  connected  with  the  twelve  signs  in  the 
zodiac,  and  with  much  in  physical  science.  The  seventy-two  dis- 
ciples, the  seventy-two  interpreters  of  the  Old  Testament,  the 
seventy-two  mystical  names  of  God,  were  connected  with  the  sup- 
posed fact  in  anatomy  that  there  were  seventy- two  joints  in  the 
human  frame. 

Then,  too,  there  were  revived  such  theologic  and  metaphysical 
substitutes  for  scientific  thought  as  the  declaration  that  the  per- 
fect line  is  a  circle,  and  hence  that  the  planets  must  move  in  abso- 
lute circles — a  statement  which  led  astronomy  astray  even  when 
the  great  truths  of  the  Copernican  theory  were  well  in  sight ;  also, 
the  declaration  that  Nature  abhors  a  vacuum,  a  statement  which 
led  physics  astray  until  Torricelli  made  his  experiments. 

In  chemistry  we  have  the  same  theologic  tendency  to  magic, 
and  as  a  result  a  muddle  of  science  and  theology,  which  from  one 
point  of  view  seems  blasphemous,  and  from  another  idiotic,  but 
which  none  the  less  sterilized  the  field  of  physical  investigation 
for  ages.  That  debased  Platonism  which  had  been  such  an  im- 
portant factor  in  the  evolution  of  Christian  theology  from  the 
earliest  days  of  the  Church  continued  its  work.  As  everything  in 
inorganic  Nature  was  supposed  to  have  spiritual  significance,  the 
doctrines  of  the  Trinity  and  Incarnation  were  turned  into  an  argu- 
ment in  behalf  of  the  philosophers  stone :  arguments  for  the 
scheme  of  redemption  and  for  transubstantiation  suggested  others 
of  similar  construction  to  prove  the  transmutation  of  metals ;  the 
doctrine  of  the  resurrection  of  the  human  body  was  by  similar 
mystic  jugglery  connected  with  the  processes  of  distillation  and 
sublimation.  Even  after  the  middle  ages  were  past  strong  men 
seem  unable  to  break  away  from  such  reasoning  as  this ; — among 
them  such  leaders  as  Basil  Valentine  in  the  fifteenth  century, 
Agricola  in  the  sixteenth,  and  Van  Helmont  in  the  seventeenth. 

The  greatest  theologians  aided  in  developing  the  fetichism  in 
which  much  of  this  pseudo-science  was  grounded.  One  question 
largely  discussed  was,  whether  at  the  redemption  it  was  necessary 
for  God  to  take  the  human  form.  Thomas  Aquinas  answered 
that  it  was  necessary,  but  William  Occam  and  Duns  Scotus  an- 


NEW  CHAPTERS  IN  THE   WARFARE  OF  SCIENCE.   19 

swered  that  it  was  not ;  that  God  might  have  taken  the  form  of  a 
stone,  or  of  a  log,  or  of  a  beast.  The  possibilities  opened  to  wild 
substitutes  for  science  by  this  sort  of  reasoning  were  infinite. 
Men  have  often  wondered  how  it  was  that  the  Arabians  accom- 
plished so  much  in  scientific  discovery  as  compared  with  Christian 
investigators:  the  reason  is  not  far  to  seek;  the  Arabians  were 
comparatively  free  from  these  mystic  allurements,  these  theologic 
modes  of  thought  which  in  Christian  Europe  flickered  in  the  air 
on  all  sides,  luring  men  into  paths  which  led  no-whither. 

Strong  investigators  like  Arnold  de  Villanova,  Raimond  Lully, 
Basil  Valentine,  Paracelsus,  and  their  compeers,  were  thus  drawn 
far  out  of  the  only  paths  which  led  to  fruitful  truths.  In  a  work 
generally  ascribed  to  Arnold  of  Villanova,  the  student  is  told  that 
in  mixing  his  chemicals  he  must  repeat  the  psalm  Exsurge  Do- 
mine,  and  that  on  certain  chemical  vessels  must  be  placed  the  last 
words  of  Jesus  on  the  cross.  Vincent  de  Beauvais  insists  that  as 
the  Bible  declares  that  Noah,  when  five  hundred  years  old,  had 
children  born  to  him,  he  must  have  possessed  alchemical  means 
of  preserving  life ;  and  much  later  Dickinson  insists  that  the 
patriarchs  generally  must  have  owed  their  long  lives  to  such 
means.  It  was  loudly  declared  that  the  reality  of  the  philoso- 
pher's stone  was  proved  by  the  words  of  St.  John  in  the  Revela- 
tion, "  To  the  victor  I  will  give  a  white  stone/'  The  reasonable- 
ness of  seeking  to  develop  gold  out  of  the  baser  metals  was  for 
many  generations  based  upon  the  doctrine  of  the  resurrection  of 
the  physical  body,  which,  though  explicitly  denied  by  St.  Paul, 
had  become  a  part  of  the  creed  of  the  Church.  Martin  Luther 
was  especially  drawn  to  believe  in  the  alchemistic  doctrine  of 
transmutation  by  this  analogy.  The  Bible  was  everywhere  used, 
both  among  Protestants  and  Catholics,  in  support  of  these  mystic 
adulterations  of  science,  and  one  writer,  as  late  as  1751,  based  his 
alchemistic  arguments  on  more  than  a  hundred  passages  of  Script- 
ure. As  an  example  of  this  sort  of  reasoning,  we  have  a  proof 
that  the  elect  will  preserve  the  philosopher's  stone  until  the  last 
judgment,  drawn  from  a  passage  in  St.  Paul's  Epistle  to  the  Co- 
rinthians, "  This  treasure  have  we  in  earthen  vessels." 

The  greatest  thinkers  devoted  themselves  to  adding  new  in- 
gredients to  this  strange  mixture  of  scientific  and  theologic 
thought ;  the  Catholic  philosophy  of  Thomas  Aquinas,  the  Prot- 
estant mysticism  of  Jacob  Boehme,  and  the  alchemistic  reveries 
of  Basil  Valentine  were  all  cast  into  this  seething  mass. 

And  when  alchemy  in  its  old  form  had  been  discredited,  we 
find  scriptural  arguments  no  less  perverse  and  even  comical  used 
on  the  other  side.  As  an  example  of  this,  just  before  the  great 
discoveries  by  Stahl,  we  find  the  valuable  scientific  efforts  of 
Becher  opposed  with  the  following  syllogism :  "  King  Solomon, 


20  NEW  CHAPTERS   IN   THE  WARFARE    OF   SCIENCE. 

according  to  the  Scriptures,  possessed  the  united  wisdom  of  heaven 
and  earth;  but  King  Solomon  knew  nothing  about  alchemy  (or 
chemistry  in  the  form  which  then  existed),  and  sent  his  vessels  to 
Ophir  to  seek  gold,  and  levied  taxes  upon  his  subjects ;  ergo 
alchemy  (or  chemistry)  has  no  reality  or  truth."  And  we  find 
that  Becher  is  absolutely  turned  away  from  his  labors,  and  obliged 
to  devote  himself  to  proving  that  Solomon  used  more  money  than 
he  possibly  could  have  obtained  from  Ophir  or  his  subjects,  and 
therefore  that  he  must  have  possessed  a  knowledge  of  chemical 
methods  and  the  philosopher's  stone  as  the  result  of  them.* 

Of  the  general  reasoning  enforced  by  theology  regarding 
physical  science,  every  age  has  shown  examples ;  yet  out  of  them 
all  I  will  select  but  two,  and  I  present  these  because  they  show 
how  this  mixture  of  theological  with  scientific  ideas  took  hold 
upon  the  strongest  supporters  of  better  reasoning  even  after  the 
power  of  mediaeval  theology  seemed  broken. 

The  first  of  these  examples  is  Melanchthon.  He  was  the  scholar 
of  the  Reformation,  and  justly  won  the  title  "  Preceptor  of  Ger- 
many " ;  his  mind  was  singularly  open,  his  sympathies  broad,  and 
his  freedom  from  bigotry  drew  down  upon  him  that  wrath  of 
Protestant  heresy-hunters  which  embittered  the  last  years  of  his 
life  and  tortured  him  upon  his  death-bed.  During  his  career  at 
the  University  of  Wittenberg  he  gave  a  course  of  lectures  on 
physics.  In  this  he  dwells  upon  scriptural  texts  as  affording  sci- 

*  For  an  extract  from  Agrippa's  Occulta  Philosophia  giving  examples  of  the  way  in  which 
mystical  names  were  obtained  from  the  Bible,  see  Rydberg,  Magic  of  the  Middle  Ages,  pp. 
143  et  seq.  For  the  germs  of  many  mystic  beliefs  regarding  number  and  the  like,  which 
were  incorporated  into  mediaeval  theology,  see  Zeller,  Plato  and  the  Older  Academy,  English 
translation  pp.  254  and  572,  and  elsewhere.  As  to  the  connection  of  spiritual  things  with 
inorganic  Nature  in  relation  to  chemistry,  see  Eicken,  p.  634.  On  the  injury  to  science 
wrought  by  Platonism  acting  through  mediaeval  theology,  see  Hoefer,  Histoire  de  la  Chimie, 
vol.  i,  p.  90.  As  to  the  influence  of  mysticism  upon  strong  men  in  science,  see  Hoefer ; 
also  Kopp,  Geschichte  der  Alchemic,  vol.  i,  p.  211.  For  a  very  curious  Catholic  treatise  on 
sacred  numbers,  see  the  Abb6  Auber,  Symbolisme  Religieux,  Paris,  1870 ;  and  for  an 
equally  important  Protestant  work,  see  Samuell,  Seven  the  Sacred  Number,  London,  1887. 
It  is  interesting  to  note  that  the  latter  writer,  having  been  forced  to  give  up  the  seven 
planets,  consoles  himself  with  the  statement  that  "  The  earth  is  the  seventh  planet,  count- 
ing from  Neptune  and  calling  the  asteroids  one  "  (see  p.  426).  For  the  electrum  magicum, 
the  seven  metals  composing  it,  and  its  wonderful  qualities,  see  extracts  from  Paracelsus's 
writings  in  Hartmun's  Life  of  Paracelsus,  London,  1887,  pp.  169  et  seq.  For  Basil  Valen- 
tine's view,  see  Hoefer,  vol.  i.  pp.  453-465;  Schmieder,  Geschichte  der  Alchemic,  pp.  197- 
209 ;  Allgemeine  deutsche  Biographic,  article  Basiling.  For  the  discussions  referred  to  on 
possibilities  of  God  assuming  forms  of  stone,  or  log,  or  beast,  see  Lippert,  Christenthum, 
Volk.-glaube,  und  Volksbrauch,  pp.  372,  373,  where  citations  are  given,  etc.  For  the  syllo- 
gism regarding  Solomon,  see  Figuier,  L' Alchemic  et  les  Alchemistes,  pp.  106,  107.  For 
careful  appreciation  of  Becher's  position  in  the  history  of  chemistry,  see  Kopp,  Ansichten 
tiber  die  Aufgabe  der  Chemie,  etc.,  von  Geber  bis  Stahl,  Braunschweig,  1875,  pp.  201  et 
seq.  For  the  text  proving  the  existence  of  the  philosopher's  stone  from  the  book  of  Revela- 
tion, see  Figuier,  p.  22. 


NEW  CHAPTERS  IN   THE   WARFARE   OF  SCIENCE.  21 

entific  proofs,  accepts  the  interference  of  the  devil  in  physical 
phenomena  as  in  other  directions,  and  applies  the  mediaeval  theo- 
logical method  throughout  his  whole  work.* 

Yet  far  more  remarkable  was  the  example,  a  century  later,  of 
the  man  who  more  than  any  other  led  the  modern  world  out  of 
the  path  opened  by  Aquinas,  and  into  that  which  Roger  Bacon 
had  sought  to  open  and  which  has  led  modern  thought  to  its 
greatest  conquests.  Strange  as  it  may  at  first  seem,  Francis 
Bacon,  whose  keenness  of  sight  revealed  the  delusions  of  the  old 
path  and  the  promises  of  the  new,  and  whose  boldness  did  so 
much  to  turn  the  world  from  the  old  path  into  the  new,  presents 
in  his  own  writings  one  of  the  most  striking  examples  of  the  evil 
he  did  so  much  to  destroy. 

The  Novum  Organon,  considering  the  time  when  it  came  from 
his  pen,  is  doubtless  one  of  the  greatest  exhibitions  of  genius  in 
the  history  of  human  thought.  It  showed  the  modern  world  the 
way  out  of  the  scholastic  method  and  reverence  for  dogma  into 
the  experimental  method  and  reverence  for  fact.  In  it  occur 
many  passages  which  show  that  the  great  philosopher  was  fully 
alive  to  the  danger  both  to  religion  and  to  science  arising  from 
their  mixture.  He  declares  that  the  "corruption  of  philosophy 
from  superstition  and  theology  introduced  the  greatest  amount  of 
evil  both  into  whole  systems  of  philosophy  and  into  their  parts." 
He  denounces  those  who  "  have  endeavored  to  found  a  natural 
philosophy  on  the  books  of  Genesis  and  Job  and  other  sacred 
Scriptures,  so  *  seeking  the  dead  among  the  living.' "  He  speaks 
of  the  result  as  "  an  unwholesome  mixture  of  things,  human  and 
divine ;  not  merely  fantastic  philosophy,  but  heretical  religion." 
He  refers  to  the  opposition  of  the  fathers  to  the  doctrine  of  the 
rotundity  of  the  earth,  and  says  that  "  thanks  to  some  of  them, 
you  may  find  the  approach  to  any  kind  of  philosophy,  however 
improved,  entirely  closed  up."  He  charges  that  some  of  these 
divines  are  "afraid  lest  perhaps  a  deeper  inquiry  into  Nature 
should  penetrate  beyond  the  allowed  limits  of  sobriety";  and 
finally  speaks  of  theologians  as  sometimes  craftily  conjecturing 
that  if  science  be  little  understood,  "each  single  thing  can  be 
referred  more  easily  to  the  hand  and  rod  of  God,"  and  says, "  77<  is 
is  nothing  more  nor  less  than  wishing  to  please  God  by  a  lie." 

No  man  who  has  reflected  much  upon  the  annals  of  his  race 
can,  without  a  feeling  of  awe,  come  into  the  presence  of  such 
clearness  of  insight  and  boldness  of  utterance,  and  the  first 
thought  of  the  reader  is,  that  of  all  men  Francis  Bacon  is  the 


*  For  Melanchthon's  ideas  on  physio,  so*-  his  luitia  Doctrine  Ph\>ir;i-,  Wittenberg,  1557, 
••specially  pp.  '243  and  274;  also  in  vol.  xiiiof  BretsclineHer's  edition  of  the  collected  works, 
and  especially  pp.  339-343. 


22  NEW   CHAPTERS  IN   THE   WARFARE  OF  SCIENCE. 

most  free  from  the  unfortunate  bias  he  condemns ;  that  he,  cer- 
tainly, can  not  be  deluded  into  the  old  path.  But  as  we  go  on 
through  his  main  work  we  are  surprised  to  find  that  the  strong 
arm  of  Aquinas  has  been  stretched  over  the  intervening  ages,  and 
has  laid  hold  upon  this  master-thinker  of  the  seventeenth  cent- 
ury. For  only  a  few  chapters  beyond  those  containing  the  cita- 
tions already  made  we  find  Bacon  alluding  to  the  recent  voyage 
of  Columbus,  and  speaking  of  the  prophecy  of  Daniel  regarding 
the  latter  days,  that  "  many  shall  run  to  and  fro  and  knowledge 
be  increased,"  as  clearly  signifying  "that  .  .  .  the  circumnaviga- 
tion of  the  world  and  the  increase  of  science  should  happen  in  the 
same  age."  * 

In  his  great  work  on  the  Advancement  of  Learning  the  firm 
grasp  which  the  methods  he  condemned  held  upon  him  is  shown 
yet  more  clearly.  In  the  first  book  of  it  he  asserts  "  that  excel- 
lent book  of  Job,  if  it  be  revolved  with  diligence,  will  be  found 
pregnant  and  swelling  with  natural  philosophy,"  and  he  endeav- 
ors to  show  that  in  it  the  "  roundness  of  the  earth,"  the  "  fixing  of 
the  stars,  ever  standing  at  equal  distances,"  the  "  depression  of  the 
southern  pole,"  the  "  matter  of  generation,"  and  "  matter  of  min- 
erals "  are  "  with  great  elegancy  noted."  But,  curiously  enough, 
he  uses  to  support  some  of  these  truths  the  very  texts  which  the 
fathers  of  the  Church  used  to  destroy  them,  and  those  for  which 
he  finds  Scripture  warrant  most  clearly  are  such  as  science  has 
since  disproved.  So,  too,  he  says  that  Solomon  was  enabled  in 
his  Proverbs,  "  by  donation  of  God,  to  compile  a  natural  history 
of  all  verdure."  f 

We  have  now  seen  how  powerless  were  the  strongest  men  in 
physical  science,  singly,  in  this  struggle  against  theology  and 
ecclesiasticism,  and  it  may  be  well  to  study  briefly  their  efforts 
after  they  had  learned  to  combine  in  societies  and  academies 
against  the  common  enemy.  In  the  latter  half  of  the  sixteenth 
century,  John  Baptist  Porta  began  his  investigations,  and  despite 
much  absurdity  they  were  fruitful.  His  was  not  "  black  magic," 
claiming  the  aid  of  Satan,  but  "  white  magic  "  bringing  into  serv- 
ice the  laws  of  Nature — the  precursor  of  applied  science.  His 


*  See  the  Novum  Organon,  translated  by  the  Rev.  G.  W.  Kitchin,  Oxford,  1855,  chaps. 
Ixv  and  Ixxxix. 

f  See  Bacon,  Advancement  of  Learning,  edited  by  W.  Aldis  Wright,  London,  1873. 
pp.  47,  48.  Certainly  no  more  striking  examples  of  the  strength  of  the  evil  which  he  had 
all  along  been  denouncing  could  be  exhibited  than  these  in  his  own  writings.  Nothing 
better  illustrates  the  sway  of  the  mediaeval  theology,  or  better  explains  his  blindness  to  the 
discoveries  of  Copernicus  and  to  the  experiments  of  Gilbert.  For  a  very  contemptuous 
statement  of  Lord  Bacon's  claim  to  his  position  as  a  philosopher,  see  Lange,  Geschichte  dea 
Materialismus,  Leipsic,  1874,  vol.  i,  p.  219.  For  a  more  just  statement,  see  Brewster,  Life 
of  Sir  Isaac  Newton.  See,  also  Jevons,  Principles  of  Science,  London,  1874,  vol.  ii,  p.  298. 


NEW  CHAPTERS  IN  THE   WARFARE   OF  SCIENCE.  23 

book  on  Meteorology  was  the  first  in  which  sound  ideas  were 
broached  on  that  subject ;  his  researches  in  optics  gave  the  world 
the  camera  obscura,  and  possibly  the  telescope ;  in  chemistry  he 
seems  to  have  been  the  first  to  show  how  to  reduce  the  metallic 
oxides,  and  thus  to  have  laid  the  foundation  of  all  those  indus- 
tries based  upon  the  coloring  and  staining  of  glass  and  enamels; 
he  did  much  to  change  natural  philosophy  from  a  "  black  art "  to 
a  vigorous  open  science.  He  encountered  the  old  policy  of  con- 
scientious men ;  the  society  founded  by  him  for  physical  research, 
"I  Secreti,"  was  broken  up,  and  he  was  summoned  to  Rome  by 
Pope  Paul  III  and  forbidden  to  continue  his  investigations. 

In  1624  some  young  chemists  of  Paris,  having  taught  the  ex- 
perimental method  and  cut  loose  from  Aristotle,  the  Faculty  of 
Theology  beset  the  Parliament  of  Paris,  and  the  Parliament  pro- 
hibited this  new  chemical  teaching,  under  penalty  of  death. 

The  same  war  continued  in  Italy.  In  1657  occurred  the  first 
sitting  of  the  Accademia  del  Cimento  at  Florence,  under  the 
presidency  of  Prince  Leopold  dei  Medici.  This  Academy  prom- 
ised great  things  for  science ;  it  was  open  to  all  talent ;  its  only 
fundamental  law  was  "  the  repudiation  of  any  favorite  system  or 
sect  of  philosophy,  and  the  obligation  to  investigate  Nature  by 
the  pure  light  of  experiment";  it  entered  into  scientific  inves- 
tigations with  energy.  Borelli  in  mathematics,  Redi  in  natural 
history,  and  many  others  pushed  on  the  boundaries  of  knowledge. 
Heat,  light,  magnetism,  electricity,  projectiles,  digestion,  the  in- 
compressibility  of  water,  were  studied  by  the  right  method  and 
with  results  that  enriched  the  world. 

The  Academy  was  a  fortress  of  science,  and  siege  was  soon 
laid  to  it.  The  votaries  of  scholastic  learning  denounced  it  as 
irreligious ;  quarrels  were  fomented ;  Leopold  was  bribed  with 
a  cardinal's  hat  and  drawn  away  to  Rome ;  and,  after  ten  years 
of  beleaguering,  the  fortress  fell :  Borelli  was  left  a  beggar ;  Oliva 
killed  himself  in  despair. 

So,  too,  the  noted  Academy  of  the  Lincei  at  times  incurred  the 
ill-will  of  the  papacy  by  the  very  fact  that  it  included  thoughtful 
investigators.  It  was  "patronized"  by  Pope  Urban  VIII  in  such 
manner  as  to  paralyze  it,  and  it  was  afterward  vexed  by  Pope 
Gregory  XVI ;  even  in  our  own  time  sessions  of  scientific  asso- 
ciations were  discouraged  and  thwarted  by  Pope  Pius  IX.* 

*  For  Porta,  see  the  English  translation  of  his  main  summary,  "  Natural  Magick,"  Lon- 
don, 1658.  The  first  chapters  are  especially  interesting,  as  showing  what  the  word  "  magic  " 
had  come  to  mean  in  the  mind  of  a  man  in  whom  mediaeval  and  modern  ideas  were  curiously 
mixed  ;  see  also  Hoefer,  Histoire  de  la  Chimie,  vol.  ii,  pp.  102-106  ;  also  Kopp ;  also  Sprengel, 
Histoire  de  la  Medecine,  iii,  p.  239  ;  also  Musset-Pathay.  For  the  Accademia  del  Cimento, 
see  Napier,  Florentine  History,  vol.  v,  p.  485 ;  T iraboschi,  Storia  della  Litteratura ;  Henri 
Martin,  Histoire  de  France ;  Jevons,  Principles  of  Science,  vol.  ii,  pp.  36-40.  For  value 


24  NEW  CHAPTERS  IN   THE   WARFARE   OF  SCIENCE. 

Such  was  tlie  struggle  of  the  physical  sciences  in  general.  Let 
us  now  look  briefly  at  one  special  example  out  of  many,  which 
reveals,  as  well  as  any,  the  beginning,  continuance,  and  end  of 
theological  interference  with  the  evolution  of  them. 

It  will  doubtless  seem  amazing  to  many  that  for  ages  the 
weight  of  theological  thought  in  Christendom  was  thrown  against 
the  idea  of  the  suffocating  properties  of  certain  gases,  and  espe- 
cially of  carbonic  acid.  Although  in  antiquity  we  see  men  form- 
ing a  right  theory  of  gases  in  mines,  we  find  that,  early  in  the 
history  of  the  Church,  St.  Clement  of  Alexandria  put  forth  the 
theory  that  these  gases  are  manifestations  of  diabolic  action,  and 
that,  throughout  Christendom,  suffocation  in  caverns,  wells,  and 
cellars  was  attributed  to  the  direct  action  of  evil  spirits.  Evi- 
dences of  this  view  abound  through  the  mediaeval  period,  and 
even  as  late  as  the  Reformation  period  a  great  authority,  Agri- 
cola,  one  of  the  most  earnest  and  truthful  of  investigators,  still 
adheres  to  the  belief  that  these  gases  in  mines  are  manifestations 
of  devils,  and  specifies  two  classes — one  of  malignant  imps,  who 
blow  out  the  miners'  lamps,  and  the  other  of  friendly  imps,  who 
simply  tease  the  workmen  in  various  ways.  He  goes  so  far  as  to 
tell  us  that  one  of  these  spirits  in  the  Saxon  mine  of  Annaberg 
destroyed  twelve  workmen  at  once  by  the  power  of  his  breath. 

At  the  end  of  the  sixteenth  century  we  find  a  writer  on  min- 
eralogy complaining  that  the  mines  in  France  and  Germany  had 
been  in  large  part  abandoned  on  account  of  the  "  evil  spirits  of 
metals  which  had  taken  possession  of  them." 

But  at  various  periods  glimpses  of  the  truth  had  been  gained. 
The  ancient  view  had  not  been  entirely  forgotten;  and  as  far 
back  as  the  first  part  of  the  thirteenth  century  Albert  the  Great 
suggested  a  natural  cause  in  the  possibility  of  exhalations  from 
minerals  causing  a  "corruption  of  the  air";  but  he,  as  we  have 
seen,  was  driven  or  dragged  off  into  theological  studies,  and  the 
world  relapsed  into  the  theological  view. 

Toward  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century  there  came  a  great 
genius  laden  with  important  truths  in  chemistry,  but  for  whom 


attached  to  Borelli's  investigations  by  Newton  and  Huygens,  see  Brewster's  Life  of  Sir 
Isaac  Newton,  London,  1876,  pp.  128,  129.  Libri,  in  his  Essai  sur  Galilee,  p.  37,  says  that 
Oliva  was  summoned  to  Rome  and  so  tortured  by  the  Inquisition  that,  to  escape  further 
cruelty,  he  ended  his  life  by  throwing  himself  from  a  window.  For  interference  by  Pope 
Gregory  XVI  with  the  Academy  of  the  Lincei,  and  with  public  instruction  generally,  see 
Carutti,  Storia  della  Accademia  dei  Lincei,  p.  126.  Pius  IX,  with  all  his  geniality,  seems  to 
have  allowed  his  hostility  to  voluntary  associations  to  carry  him  very  far  at  times.  For  his 
answer  to  an  application  made  through  Lord  Odo  Russell  regarding  a  society  for  the  pre- 
vention of  cruelty  to  animals  and  his  answer  that  "  such  an  association  could  not  be  sanc- 
tioned by  the  Holy  See,  being  founded  on  a  theological  error,  to  wit,  that  Christians  owed 
any  duties  to  animals,"  see  Frances  Power  Cobbe,  Hopes  of  the  Human  Race,  p.  20*7. 


NEW  CHAPTERS  IN  THE   WARFARE   OF  SCIENCE.  25 

the  world  was  not  ready — Basil  Valentine.  His  discoveries  an- 
ticipated much  that  has  brought  fame  and  fortune  to  chemists 
since,  yet  so  fearful  of  danger  was  he  that  his  work  was  carefully 
concealed.  Not  until  after  his  death  was  his  treatise  on  alchemy 
found,  and  even  then  it  was  for  a  long  time  not  known  where  and 
when  he  lived.  The  papal  bull,  Spondent  pariter,  and  the  various 
prohibitions  it  bred,  forcing  other  alchemists  to  conceal  their 
laboratories,  led  him  to  let  himself  be  known  during  his  life  at 
Erfurt  simply  as  an  apothecary,  and  to  wait  until  after  his  death 
to  make  a  revelation  of  truth,  which  during  his  lifetime  might 
have  cost  him  dear.  Among  the  legacies  of  this  greatest  of  the 
alchemists  was  the  doctrine  that  the  air  which  asphyxiates  work- 
ers in  mines  is  similar  to  that  which  is  produced  by  fermen- 
tation of  malt,  and  a  recommendation  that  in  order  to  drive  away 
the  evil  and  to  prevent  serious  accidents,  fires  be  lighted  and  jets 
of  steam  used  to  ventilate  the  mines,  laying  stress  especially  upon 
the  idea  that  the  danger  in  the  mines  is  produced  by  "  exhalations 
of  metals." 

Thanks  to  men  like  Valentine,  this  idea  of  the  interference  of 
Satan  and  his  minions  with  the  mining  industry  was  gradually 
weakened,  and  the  working  of  the  deserted  mines  was  resumed  ; 
yet,  even  at  a  comparatively  recent  period,  we  find  it  still  linger- 
ing, and  among  leading  divines  in  the  very  heart  of  Protestant 
Germany.  In  1715  a  cellar-digger  having  been  stifled  at  Jena, 
the  medical  faculty  of  the  university  decided  that  the  cause  was 
not  the  direct  action  of  the  devil,  but  a  deadly  gas.  Thereupon 
Prof.  Loescher,  of  the  University  of  Wittenberg,  entered  a  sol- 
emn protest,  declaring  that  the  decision  of  the  medical  faculty 
was  "  only  a  proof  of  the  lamentable  license  which  has  so  taken 
possession  of  us,  and  which,  if  we  are  not  earnestly  on  our  guard, 
will  finally  turn  away  from  us  the  blessing  of  God."  *  But  de- 
nunciations of  this  kind  could  not  hold  back  the  little  army  of 
science.  In  the  last  half  of  the  eighteenth  century  Black,  Priestley, 
and  especially  Bergmann,  rooted  out  the  very  foundations  of  the 
whole  theologic  theory,  and  one  more  phantom  which  had  long 
troubled  the  earth  was  at  last  driven  forth  forever,  f 

Thus,  in  spite  of  adverse  influences,  the  evolution  of  the  physi- 
cal sciences  went  on.  More  and  more  there  rose  men  bold  enough 
to  break  away  from  the  theological  method,  and  strong  enough  to 
resist  the  enticements  or  threats  of  ecclesiasticism.  Alchemy  in 

*  For  Loescher's  protest,  see  Julian  Schmidt,  Geschichte  des  geistigen  Lebens,  etc., 
vol.  i,  p.  319. 

f  For  the  general  view  of  noxious  gases  as  imps  of  Satan,  see  Hoefer,  Histoire  de  la 
Chimie,  vol.  i,  p.  350,  vol.  ii,  p.  48.  For  the  work  of  Black,  Priestley,  Bergmann,  and  others, 
see  main  authorities  already  cited,  and  especially  the  admirable  paper  of  Dr.  R.  G.  Ecclea 
on  The  Evolution  of  Chemistry,  New  York,  D.  Appleton  &  Co.,  1891. 


26  NEW  CHAPTERS  IN   THE  WARFARE   OF  SCIENCE. 

its  first  form,  seeking  for  the  philosopher's  stone  and  the  trans- 
mutation of  metals,  gave  way  to  alchemy  in  its  second  form,  seek- 
ing for  the  elixir  of  life  and  remedies  more  or  less  magical  for 
disease ;  and  this  in  turn  yielded  to  the  search  for  truth  as  truth. 
More  and  more  the  "solemnly  constituted  impostors"  were  re- 
sisted in  every  field.  A  great  line  of  physicists  and  chemists  began 
to  appear.  Though  theological  modes  of  reasoning  continued  to 
sterilize  much  effort  in  chemistry  down  to  our  own  century,  more 
and  more  the  old  influence  was  thrown  off ;  more  and  more  truth 
was  sought  as  truth ;  less  and  less  science  was  bent  to  aid  in  the 
alleged  "  saving  of  souls."  "  Black  magic  "  with  its  satanic  appa- 
ratus vanished,  only  reappearing  occasionally  among  miracle- 
mongers  and  belated  theologians.  "  White  magic  "  became  leger- 
demain.* 

In  our  own  time  some  attempt  has  been  made  to  renew  this 
war  against  the  physical  sciences.  Joseph  de  Maistre,  uttering 
his  hatred  of  them,  declaring  that  mankind  has  paid  too  dearly 
for  them,  asserting  that  they  must  be  subjected  to  theology,  lik- 
ening them  to  fire — good  when  confined  and  dangerous  when  scat- 
tered about — has  been  one  of  the  main  leaders  among  those  who 
can  not  relinquish  the  idea  that  our  body  of  sacred  literature 
should  be  kept  a  controlling  text-book  of  science.  The  only  effect 
of  such  teachings  has  been  to  weaken  the  legitimate  hold  of  re- 
ligion upon  men. 

In  Catholic  countries  the  effort  has  been  of  late  years  mainly 
confined  to  excluding  science  or  diluting  it  in  university  teach- 
ings. Early  in  the  present  century  a  great  effort  was  made  by 
Ferdinand  VII  of  Spain.  He  simply  dismissed  the  scientific  pro- 
fessors from  the  University  of  Salamanca,  and  until  a  recent 
period  there  has  been  general  exclusion  from  Spanish  universi- 
ties of  professors  holding  to  the  Newtonian  physics.  So,  too,  the 
contemporary  Emperor  of  Austria  attempted  indirectly  something 
of  the  same  sort ;  and  at  a  still  later  period  "Popes  Gregory  XVI 
and  Pius  IX  discouraged,  if  they  did  not  forbid,  the  meetings  of 
scientific  associations  in  Italy.  In  France,  war  between  theology 
and  science,  which  had  long  been  smoldering,  came  in  the  years 
1867  and  1868  to  an  outbreak.  Toward  the  end  of  the  last  century, 
after  the  Church  had  held  possession  of  advanced  instruction  for 
more  than  a  thousand  years,  and  had,  so  far  as  it  was  able,  kept 
experimental  science  in  servitude — after  it  had  humiliated  Buffon 


*  For  a  reappearance  of  the  fundamental  doctrine  of  black  magic  among  theologians, 
see  Rev.  Dr.  Jewett,  Professor  of  Pastoral  Theology  in  the  Prot.  Episc.  Gen.  Theolog.  Semi- 
nary of  New  York,  Diabolology :  The  Person  and  Kingdom  of  Satan,  New  York,  1889.  For 
their  reappearance  among  theosophists,  see  Elephas  Levi,  Histoire  de  la  Magie,  especially 
the  final  chapters. 


NEW   CHAPTERS  IN    THE   WARFARE   OF  SCIENCE.  27 

in  natural  science,  thrown  its  weight  against  Newton  in  the  phys- 
ical sciences,  and  wrecked  Turgot's  noble  plans  for  a  system  of 
public  instruction — the  French  nation  decreed  the  establishment 
of  the  most  thorough  and  complete  system  of  higher  instruction 
in  science  ever  known.  It  was  kept  under  lay  control,  and  became 
one  of  the  glories  of  France  ;  but,  emboldened  by  the  restoration 
of  the  Bourbons  in  1815,  the  Church  began  to  undermine  this 
hated  system,  and  in  1808  had  made  such  progress  that  all  was 
ready  for  the  final  assault. 

Foremost  among  the  leaders  of  the  besieging  party  was  the 
Bishop  of  Orleans,  Dupanloup,  a  man  of  many  winning  charac- 
teristics and  of  great  oratorical  power.  In  various  ways,  and 
especially  in  an  open  letter,  he  had  fought  the  "materialism"  of 
science  at  Paris,  and  especially  were  his  attacks  leveled  at  Profs. 
Vulpian  and  S^e,  and  the  Minister  of  Public  Instruction,  Duruy,  a 
man  of  great  merit,  whose  only  crime  was  devotion  to  the  im- 
provement of  education,  and  to  the  promotion  of  the  highest  re- 
search in  science.* 

The  main  attack  was  made  rather  upon  biological  science  than 
upon  physics  and  chemistry,  yet  it  was  clear  that  all  were  involved 
together. 

The  first  onslaught  was  made  in  the  French  Senate,  and  the 
storming  party  in  that  body  was  led  by  a  venerable  and  conscien- 
tious prelate,  Cardinal  de  Bonnechose,  Archbishop  of  Rouen.  It 
was  charged  by  him  and  his  party  that  the  tendencies  of  the 
higher  scientific  teaching  at  Paris  were  fatal  to  religion  and  mo- 
rality. Heavy  missiles  were  hurled — such  phrases  as  "  sapping 
the  foundations,"  etc.,  "  breaking  down  the  bulwarks,"  etc.,  and, 
withal,  a  new  missile  was  used  with  much  effect — the  epithet 
"  materialist." 

The  results  can  be  easily  guessed :  crowds  came  to  the  lecture- 
rooms  of  the  attacked  professors,  and  the  lecture-room  of  Prof. 
SeX  the  chief  offender,  was  crowded  to  suffocation. 

A  siege  was  begun  in  due  form.  A  young  physician  was  sent 
by  the  cardinal's  party  into  the  heterodox  camp  as  a  spy.  Having 
heard  one  lecture  of  Prof.  See,  he  returned  with  information  that 
seemed  to  promise  easy  victory  to  the  besieging  party;  he 
brought  a  terrible  statement — one  that  seemed  enough  to  over- 
whelm Sde,  Vulpian,  Duruy,  and  the  whole  hated  system  of 
public  instruction  in  France — the  statement  that  S£e  had  denied 
the  existence  of  the  human  soul. 

Good  Cardinal  Bonnechose  seized  the  tremendous  weapon. 
Rising  in  his  place  in  the  Senate,  he  launched  a  most  eloquent 
invective  against  the  Minister  of  State  who  could  protect  such  a 

*  For  Dupanloup,  Lettre  a  un  Cardinal,  see  the  Revue  de  Therapeutique  of  1868,  p.  221. 


28  NEW  CHAPTERS  IN  THE   WARFARE  OF  SCIENCE. 

fortress  of  impiety  as  the  College  of  Medicine  ;  and,  as  a  climax, 
he  asserted,  on  the  evidence  of  his  spy  fresh  from  Prof.  See's 
lecture-room,  that  the  professor  had  declared,  in  his  lecture  of  the 
day  before,  that  so  long  as  he  had  the  honor  to  hold  his  professor- 
ship he  would  combat  the  false  idea  of  the  existence  of  the  soul. 
The  weapon  seemed  resistless,  and  the  wound  fatal ;  but  M.  Duruy 
rose  and  asked  to  be  heard. 

His  statement  was  simply  that  he  held  in  his  hand  docu- 
mentary proofs  that  Prof.  Se*e  never  made  such  a  declaration. 
He  held  the  notes  used  by  Prof.  Sde  in  his  lecture.  Prof.  S^e,  it 
appeared,  belonged  to  a  school  in  medical  science  which  combated 
certain  ideas  regarding  medicine  as  an  art.  The  inflamed  im- 
agination of  the  cardinal's  heresy-hunting  emissary  had,  as  the 
lecture  notes  proved,  led  him  to  mistake  the  word  "art"  for 
"  dine  "  and  to  exhibit  Prof.  Se"e  as  treating  a  theological  when  he 
was  discussing  a  purely  scientific  question.  Of  the  existence  of 
the  soul  the  professor  had  said  nothing. 

The  forces  of  the  enemy  were  immediately  turned ;  they  re- 
treated in  confusion,  amid  the  laughter  of  all  France ;  and  a 
quiet,  dignified  statement  as  to  the  rights  of  scientific  instructors 
by  Wurtz,  Dean  of  the  Faculty,  completed  their  discomfiture. 
Thus  a  well-meant  attempt  to  check  science  simply  ended  in 
bringing  ridicule  on  religion,  and  thrusting  still  deeper  into  the 
minds  of  thousands  of  men  that  most  mistaken  of  all  mistaken 
ideas — the  conviction  that  religion  and  science  are  enemies.* 

But  justice  forbids  raising  an  outcry  against  Roman  Cathol- 
icism alone  for  this.  In  1864  a  number  of  excellent  men  in  Eng- 
land drew  up  a  declaration  to  be  signed  by  students  in  the  natural 
sciences,  expressing  "  sincere  regret  that  researches  into  scientific 
truth  are  perverted  by  some  in  our  time  into  occasion  for  casting 
doubt  upon  the  truth  and  authenticity  of  the  Holy  Scriptures." 
Nine  tenths  of  the  leading  scientific  men  of  England  refused  to 
sign  it ;  nor  was  this  all :  Sir  John  Herschel,  Sir  John  Bowring, 
and  Sir  W.  R.  Hamilton  administered,  through  the  press,  castiga- 
tions  which  roused  general  indignation  against  the  proposers  of 
the  circular,  and  Prof.  De  Morgan,  by  a  parody,  covered  memorial 
and  memorialists  with  ridicule.  It  was  the  old  mistake,  and  the 
old  result  followed  in  the  minds  of  multitudes  of  thoughtful 
young  men.f 

*  For  a  general  account  of  the  Vulpian  and  S6e  matter,  see  Revue  des  Deux  Mondes,  31 
mai,  1868  ;  Chronique  de  la  Quinzaine,  pp.  763-765.  As  to  the  result  on  popular  thought, 
may  be  noted  the  following  comment  on  the  affair  by  the  Revue,  which  is  as  free  a?  possible 
from  anything  like  rabid  anti-ecclesiastical  ideas  :  "  Elle  a  ete  vraiment  curieuse,  instruc- 
tive, assez  triste  et  meme  un  peu  amusante."  For  Wurtz's  statement,  see  Revue  de  Thera- 
peutique  for  1868,  p.  303. 

f  De  Morgan,  Paradoxes,  pp.  421-428 ;  also,  Daubeny's  Essays. 


NEW   CHAPTERS  IN  THE    WARFARE   OF  SCIENCE.  29 

And  in  yet  another  Protestant  country  this  same  mistake  was 
made.  In  1868  several  excellent  churchmen  in  Prussia  thought  it 
their  duty  to  meet  for  the  denunciation  of  "science  falsely  so 
called."  Two  results  followed  :  upon  the  great  majority  of  these 
really  self-sacrificing  men — whose  first  utterances  showed  com- 
plete ignorance  of  the  theories  they  attacked — there  came  quiet 
and  wide-spread  contempt ;  upon  Pastor  Knak,  who  stood  forth 
and  proclaimed  views  of  the  universe  which  he  thought  scriptural, 
but  which  most  school-boys  knew  to  be  childish,  came  a  burst  of 
good-natured  derision  from  every  quarter  of  the  German  na- 
tion.* 

Warfare  of  this  sort  against  science  seems  petty  indeed ;  but 
it  is  to  be  guarded  against  in  Protestant  countries  not  less  than  in 
Catholic ;  it  breaks  out  in  America  not  less  than  in  Europe.  Do 
conscientious  Roman  bishops  in  France  labor  to  keep  all  advanced 
scientific  instruction  under  their  own  control — in  their  own  uni- 
versities and  colleges ;  so  do  many  not  less  conscientious  Protes- 
tant clergymen  in  our  own  country  insist  that  advanced  education 
in  science  and  literature  shall  be  kept  under  control  in  their  own 
sectarian  universities  and  colleges,  wretchedly  one-sided  in  their 
development,  and  miserably  inadequate  in  their  equipment:  did 
a  leading  Spanish  university,  until  a  recent  period,  exclude  pro- 
fessors holding  the  Newtonian  theory;  so  have  many  leading 
American  colleges  excluded  professors  holding  the  Darwinian 
theory :  have  Catholic  colleges  in  Italy  rejected  excellent  candi- 
dates for  professorships  on  account  of  "  unsafe  "  views  regarding 
the  immaculate  conception ;  so  have  Protestant  colleges  in  Amer- 
ica frequently  rejected  excellent  candidates  on  account  of  "un- 
safe "  views  regarding  the  apostolic  succession,  or  the  incarnation, 
or  baptism,  or  the  perseverance  of  the  saints. 

And  how  has  all  this  system  resulted?  In  the  older  nations, 
by  natural  reaction,  these  colleges,  under  strict  ecclesiastical  con- 
trol, have  sent  forth  the  most  bitter  enemies  the  Christian  Church 
has  ever  known — of  whom  Voltaire  and  Renan  and  Saint-Beuve 
are  types ;  and  there  are  many  signs  that  the  same  causes  are  to 
produce  the  same  results  in  our  own  country. 

I  might  allude  to  other  battle-fields  in  our  own  land  and  time. 
I  might  show  how,  twenty  years  ago,  attempts  to  meet  the  want 
in  a  great  American  State  of  an  institution  providing  higher  sci- 
entific instruction,  were  met  with  loud  outcries  from  many  excel- 
lent men,  who  feared  injury  thereby  to  religion ;  and  how  in 
various  other  States,  at  various  times  since,  the  same  feeling  has 
been  shown.  Happily,  leading  men  at  the  centers  of  Christian 
thought  in  many  countries  are  now  taking  a  larger  and  better 

*  See  the  Berlin  newspapers  for  the  summer  of  1868,  especially  Kladderadatsch. 


30  NEW  CHAPTERS  IN   THE   WARFARE    OF  SCIENCE. 

view:  but  I  again  point  to  the  recent  driving  out  of  the  Dar- 
winian professors  from  the  American  college  at  Beirut,  under  the 
direction  of  American  Protestants,  as  an  evidence  that  the  old 
spirit  still  exists ;  no  longer,  indeed,  seriously  injurious  to  science, 
but  deeply  injurious  to  religion.* 


*  It  is  an  interesting  fact  that  one  of  the  men  thus  driven  out  of  the  American  college 
at  Beirut,  for  supposed  adhesion  to  the  doctrines  of  Darwin,  has  since  become  one  of  the 
most  influential  editors  at  Cairo,  carrying  on  a  daily  journal  and  two  periodicals,  and  exer- 
cising a  far  greater  and  wider  influence  upon  thought  in  the  East  than  ever  before.  What- 
ever may  be  thought  of  the  system  of  philosophy  advocated  by  President  McCosh  at  Prince- 
ton, every  thinking  man  must  honor  him  for  the  large  way  in  which  he,  at  least,  broke  away 
from  the  traditions  of  that  center  of  thought ;  prevented,  so  far  as  he  was  able,  persecution 
of  scholars  for  holding  to  the  Darwinian  view ;  and  paved  the  way  for  the  highest  researches 
in  physical  science  in  that  university.  For  a  most  eloquent  statement  of  the  opposition  of 
modern  physical  science  to  mediaeval  theological  views,  as  shown  in  the  case  of  Sir  Isaac 
Newton,  see  Dr.  Thomas  Chalmers,  cited  in  Gore,  Art  of  Scientific  Discovery,  London,  1878, 
p.  247. 


I 


University 

Souther: 

Librar 


